Designed by Robert Lawson the building is regarded as one of his most impressive wooden churches and is listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 2 structure.

As the European population increased the residents of the Mataura Valley and Tapanui were sufficient in number in 1862 to petition the Presbytery regarding a minister for their district.

Gordon (East Gore) was surveyed in 1877, with sections auctioned in October 1878, which induced a flurry of construction – three stores, two hotels, and a bank opening in quick succession.

[1] The terrace on which the proposed church was to stand was known by local Maori as Ōnuku, a place where a lament was composed by a hunter mourning the death of his wife and family in a heavy snowstorm.

The site is the finest this City of the Valley can boast of, on the summit of a rising ground at the east end of the Railway bridge where a visible church may be seen nearly from Riversdale to Invercargill.

An idea exists that the purse strings may be razed [stretched] to the tune of, say £300, a sum you will doubtless set down as small, but mind you, we are as yet a "feeble folk" among the hills, and if we can now make room for 200, should more come by and by and think of putting "eek" [extension] on the hive they will just have to bring the money with them ...

I think they would all like to see a bit of a steeple and to hear 'clinkum bell wi' rattling tow' call them up on Sabbath Morning: my only fear is that the sum named will not allow you to go further than something severely Presbyterian in style, but not so much as I hope our early acquaintances of Burgher and anti-Burgher, Relief Secession and Kirk specimens of architecture still visible in some parts of our native country.Lawson took on the commission, suggesting that the congregation apply to the Synod for a £200 grant to assist with the cost.

[1] After some months of wrangling with the factor for the Presbyterian Church in Dunedin, funding disputes were smoothed over and tenders were called by Lawson for construction on 23 February 1881.

[9] In response to the structural damage Lawson visited the site and agreed to erecting four buttresses and iron cross rods with extra timber and bracing in the tower.

[14][15] Mackay's tenure proved to be short as a number of congregation took exception to his preaching in 1887 and in December of that year petitioned the Southland Presbytery to allow them to set another church in Gore.

[18] A conflicting source however claims that it was those who supported him that left to join the same church, which they felt offered a freer constitution and a better location.

It then took until 1959 before sufficient funds had been raised to construct a formal place of worship in the form of St Andrew's Church on the Western side of the Mataura.

His solution required cutting through the church, to turn it into transepts and the construction of a new nave, with the session house added at the end where the pulpit stood.

The extension which cost £500 was built by L. Brown of Invercargill and with its Lancet windows and simple detailing was in a similar style to Lawson's original.

[1] The Eastern Southland Gallery purchased the church and its attached hall in 2001 with the aim of restoring the building and turning it into an arts centre.

[25] An offer from Frans Baetens and Magda van Gils led to upon their future retirement, a 7.5 ton J. Voirin French lithography press (dating from 1874) and other printing equipment being donated to the centre which would for use in the lithographic studio.

Baetens and van Gils who moved to New Zealand in 1984 had shipped the press over from Europe for use in their Muka Studio in Auckland's Grey Lynn.

Restoration of the church was undertaken under the guidance of heritage architect Jeremy Salmond with the support of structural engineer Peter Stevenson.

[29] The church which is cruciform in plan and is constructed of timber, clad in weatherboard, with a corrugated iron roof is located on a rise in East Gore overlooking the Mataura River and the town.