Holland's UMC, McCullers Baptist are picturesque in their own ways

Ten-Ten and Rand roads are important thoroughfares in southeastern Wake County, North Carolina. On Sept. 21, while traveling on each of those roads, I came across a church that caught my eye and prompted me to pull and photograph them.

Holland's United Methodist Church, at 9433 Ten-Ten Road, Raleigh, N.C., can be found on spacious grounds just east of Old Stage Road, another major vehicle artery in the area. The church got its start more than 200 years ago when schoolmaster William Holland bequeathed $400 for the construction of a good Methodist "meeting house" in the area. His wishes were fulfilled by 1811, and the church, which had grown and significantly developed in the ensuing years, observed its bicentennial just a few years ago.

I explored the Internet to find a history of the congregation to hopefully understand why there appears to be two churches on the grounds, but I could find none that explain it clearly. There is one building that appears to be more modern, and it is the one leading off the post. About 40 yards or so west of it, however, there is a smaller structure with a steeple that I presume was previously used as the congregation's house of worship but for whatever reason remained standing after the new structure was built. That's the older building in the photo below.

Both buildings have wings attached to them, which I'd guess were added at various stages to address various church needs and services. And between both churches lies a graveyard -- easily visible to passing motorists on Ten-Ten Road. One view of the graveyard appears in the photo below. For that picture, I'm standing with the smaller church behind me and looking northeast toward the newer structure, which is behind the couple trees in the center background.

There is ample parking available for worshipers and visitors at Holland's United Methodist. Its space and parking probably is why it was sought out as a polling place for elections in that area of Panther Branch Township. The older church structure appears with one of the attachments in the photo below. The attachment leads to the newer structure.

In the back of the grounds is a small area developed for people to use for meditation and prayer. The church refers to the area as its prayer garden, and I paused for a moment there to take advantage of its purpose. A couple pictures of the prayer garden appear below.

For a full gallery of my visit to Holland's United Methodist Church, click on the link in this sentence.

Not far from Holland's UMC is McCullers Community Baptist Church at 133 Rand Road, Raleigh, the front of which is shown in the photo above, with another view in the first photo below.

Compared to Holland's United Methodist, McCullers is in its relative infancy, founded in 2004. I liked its uncluttered grounds; there is a very modest wooden swing set in the back, and on its south lawn are the three crosses (pictured in the third photo below). Behind the crosses is an open field, which I photographed from a couple perspectives (fourth, fifth and sixth photos below).

As always, to views a larger, sharper version of any photo in this post, simply click on the photo. This is especially helpful if you access the blog using a mobile device. For a full gallery of photos from my shoot at McCullers Community Baptist Church, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I handled the entire shoot with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3
Di VC PZD lens. I took three exposures of every composition to meld later in high-dynamic range (HDR) Photomatix software during post-processing. I set the camera shooting mode on aperture priority (f/8.0) and adjusted my ISO levels to allow for optimum shutter speeds so as not to blur images.

Above: Adjacent to McCullers to the north is a private property where I saw this watermelon garden. 

Above and below: McCullers is on the west side of Rand Road; across the street -- on the east side -- I found these picturesque scenes.