Methodist, Baptist churches help round out historic downtown Apex

Much like downtowns in Cary and Garner, the downtown in Apex, N.C,. has a couple of nearby churches that round out its compliment of buildings.

Apex Baptist Church, 110 N. Salem St., is right at the north end of the main business district. One can easily see Anna's Pizzeria kitty-corner from the front door of the church. A couple blocks away, just across the railroad tracks, is Apex United Methodist Church and Noah's Ark Childcare Services, 110 S. Hughes St.

Like a lot of growing churches I'm coming across in my travels in North Carolina, Apex UMC is a mix of old and new structures. The church dates to 1870, and the current sanctuary -- the third in its history -- was built at the corner of Hughes and Chatham streets after land for it was acquired in 1917, according to a history of the church. In the years that followed, more land was purchased and structural additions were built to house a parsonage, a music and education building and a Christian Life Center.

As always, to view a larger, sharper image, click on the image. This is especially helpful when accessing the blog from a mobile device. To see a full gallery of my shoot of Apex United Methodist Church, click on the link in this sentence.

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Back toward downtown, at Chatham and Salem, is Apex Baptist, where a photographer has to look hard to find angles to photograph the front facade without utility cables getting in the way. I got low to the ground to get the first shot you see below. And for the second photo below, the one straight out in front, I had the lens at the widest angle -- 28 millimeters.

Apex Baptist's grounds are pretty sizable for a church near the core of downtown. All of its buildings are in red brick.

Like Apex UMC, Apex Baptist dates to the 1870s and claims to be the first "permanently established church" in the then-new community, according to a history at its website. The currenet sanctuary was built in 1987, and the brick additions housing the fellowship hall and education center were completed in 2000.

To see a full gallery of my shoot of Apex Baptist Church, follow 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 to aperture priority (f/8.0) and adjusted my ISO levels in dark conditions to allow for optimum shutter speeds so as not to blur images.