[1] Ashgrove, a Brisbane suburb approximately 4 km northwest of the central business district, the traditional country of the Yuggera and Turrbal people, was progressively surveyed and offered for private sale from 1842.

[7]: 79  It spread rapidly throughout the United States of America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through itinerant preachers and later throughout the world through Methodist missionaries.

[1][10] The population of the Grove Estate slowly increased in the late 19th century, and a Wesleyan Methodist Sunday school was started in 1889 in a private home.

Methodist Church services were held in both a private residence and a tent, and given by Reverend Ellison who visited from the Paddington circuit.

Initially known as the Grove Estate Wesleyan Church, it not only held religious services and Sunday school, but also musical concerts and community meetings.

In 1920, the Grove Estate Progress Association held a public meeting in the Methodist Church to garner support to lobby the government for a 1-mile (1.6 km) extension to the tramline.

This led to subdivision of large landholdings for housing, including Glen Lyon Gardens, Oakleigh and Graham estates, and St John's Wood.

[32] Having successful raised the funds and purchased an adjacent 20 perch or 505-square-metre (5,440 sq ft) lot (605 RP 20481),[26] in October 1928 the stump-capping ceremony was held.

There will be two verandahs, which will converge at the main entrance, thus giving the place a double front".The building had been completed by January 1929 when the official opening ceremony was held.

[33][1] As the suburb and congregation grew, a new Sunday school was established in Ashgrove West in the late 1920s, and in 1931 a new hall was constructed on a site along Waterworks Road, close to the Glen Lyon Gardens Estate.

It was a period of substantial change and reform within the Methodist and other Christian denominations throughout Australia, as they sought to become more relevant to modern society.

Developments in theology and liturgy, coupled with an expansionary building program, led to a radical departure from established architectural traditions.

Reflecting international trends, church designs moved away from historical revival styles and became increasingly influenced by Modernism.

[1][44][45] Many new Methodist churches, Sunday school halls, and parsonages were constructed throughout Queensland in the 1950s, replacing older buildings and meeting demand in new suburbs and growing regions.

In addition, the church constructed new buildings to support its various charities and organisations including aged persons homes, hostels, Young People's Department (YPD) Camps, and Kings College at the University of Queensland St Lucia campus (opened 1955).

[1][46][47][48] Methodist optimism following World War II was demonstrated in "a series of nationalistic [sic] evangelistic campaigns, which climaxed in the Mission to the Nation".

[49]: 253  Carried out between 1953 and 1957, the Mission was the largest attempt ever made by the Methodist Church to "reform the nation", emphasising the Christian faith as the only answer to social and industrial problems.

Meetings were held in capital cities and main provincial centres throughout the country, conducted by campaign leader Reverend Alan Walker.

[1][54]: 13 Gibson designed the new Ashgrove church as an A-frame Modernist structure and followed a traditional layout with a central aisle and front raised sanctuary.

Impressive examples of this architectural form had been built in Europe and the United States, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Meeting House of the First Unitarian Society, Wisconsin, and may have influenced Gibson's design for Ashgrove.

It was described as:[53][56][1]"one of the most striking examples of contemporary church architecture in Brisbane ... the chief feature ... is the roof, which is designed on the A-line principle.

It will measure forty feet [12.19m] from apex to base and will be covered with green tiles ... non-actinic glass will permit of adequate lighting.

"All furniture within the church was bespoke: maple timber: pews, communion table and rail, pulpit, baptismal font, choir stall and minister's chairs.

The former church grounds are bounded on the Ashgrove Avenue boundary by a short brick wall, tropical gardens and timber lattice screens.

[1] The former church (1962) is an A-frame building standing with its long sides parallel to Ashgrove Avenue on the highest part of the site.

It is single-storey and its roof has a sloping ridgeline, taller and wider at its front (southwest gable end), where the former church's main entrance is.

The steeply-pitched main roof is clad in green-coloured cement tiles with eaves extending low to the ground on both sides.

The shape is formed by metal portal frames, which extend from below the eaves clear of the exterior walls and meet the ground on concrete footings.

Both gable ends of the building have face brick walls and are glazed, with the front featuring a coloured glass cross pattern.

Through its siting, distinctive tapered A-frame form, main front elevation with large, coloured glass cross, and features of its modernist architectural style including its metal framed windows, face brick walls with extruded brick pattern, and green tiled roof, the place expresses the optimism, renewal and relevance of the Methodist Church at the time.