Rural Chatham County churches on Mt. Gilead Church Road

When I left Fearrington Village (see yesterday’s post) to head home, my iPhone map directed me to turn off Highway 15-501 onto Mt. Gilead Church Road, which would eventually connect me with Highway 64 to head east toward Raleigh. 

While on that relatively short leg of Mt. Gilead Church Road, I came across two churches that caught my eye, so I made spontaneous stops to photograph each of them. Both also had graveyards adjacent to the church property. 

By far, my favorite of the photos I took of the two churches was the one of Mt. Gilead Baptist that is leading off the post. I don't think I could have asked for a better tree framing opportunity. A few other shots and angles and one shot of an ancillary structure on the property appear below. They are followed by four images of the graveyard.

A short distance south of Mt. Gilead Baptist is Haw River Baptist, which I came upon apparently as Sunday services were breaking up for the day. 

I was questioned by at least two church members (one of whom might have even have been the pastor) as I tried to hurry my shots so I could get out their hair. It was a very nice looking church, so I wanted to get at least a few pictures. The five images you see here are everything I took from the visit. 

As for James and Annie Fearrington, whose names appear on the grave marker closest to the parking lot in the fourth photo below, I was not able to ascertain if they have any connection to the nearby Fearrington Village.

One oddity of note about this stop. At home while preparing this post, I looked up the two churches on my Maps app, and the app places Haw River Baptist Church on the west side of Mt. Gilead Church Road, the same side of the road as the Mt. Gilead church. But I can say from first-hand, on-site experience that the Haw River church is on the east side of the road. (shrug)

Chatham County's Fearrington Village inspired by idyllic English villages

In 1974, R.B. and Jenny Fitch purchased a 640-acre farm in northeast Chatham County, North Carolina, with a vision to transform the property into a community inspired by the villages the Fitches had visited and admired in England. 

The land had been owned and farmed by several generations of Fearringtons, who inherited the acreage in 1915 from the great-granddaughter of the original owner, William Cole Sr., and her husband Edwin M. Fearrington.

The Fitches’ Fearrington Village was the first planned-unit development in the county and one of the first in the state of North Carolina. The village’s population in the 2020 census was 2,557, making it the third largest community wholly situated in Chatham County, behind only Siler City and Pittsboro.

I first heard about it just three years ago when a former Indianapolis work colleague called me to say he was coming to town and wanted to meet for lunch with several other former work colleagues who also happened to be living in the area at the time. 

He said he was staying at Fearrington House Inn in Fearrington Village then tried to describe it to me when I asked him what and where that was because I hadn’t heard of it before. When I got home from our lunch, I checked out the community’s website, after which I put the village on the mental back burner as a place I wanted to visit with my camera.

That visit came to pass Sunday afternoon. I spent almost the entire time at Fearrington Village perusing the village center and nearby Camden Park and its ponds (see photo of the park above). I didn’t see many homes, just a couple score along the village center perimeter. And because there was a lot of similarity in those perimeter area homes, I didn’t feel driven or motivated to venture deeper into the development. 

Maybe that was a mistake. I was also tired by this time; I’d spent the morning walking 3 miles through the nearby town of Pittsboro (see previous post). So maybe I was needing a convenient excuse to call it a day.

But I will say I found a lot of photogenic scenes just in the village center. And my favorite image of the day, the photo leading off the post, was a composition along a street of some of those homes along the village center perimeter. It’s a composition I made by compressing a long distance using the longest focal range on my 28-300mm Tamron zoom lens.

To view a full gallery of images from the Fearrington Village shoot, follow the link in this sentence. 

A first-time visitor like me gets this initial view of the Fearrington acreage after turning off of Highways 15-501 onto Village Way leading into the village center. 

The realty office (above), barn (first photo below), Fearrington House Restaurant (second photo below), MacIntyre Books (third photo below) and Belted Goat eatery (fourth photo below) are among key components of the village center. 

A healthy dose of mature trees is a big deal in the village center, as the photos above and the first three below attest. 

As one approaches the restaurant, this precisely manicured maize of bushes is there to behold. I got the perspective of the maize below by holding the camera over my head, pointing in the direction I thought would be accurate, focusing and then tripping the shutter. I was pleased to be able to do it in one take. 

Above and below: The Fearrington Village Garden is situated near the guest accommodations, and I would imagine few guests miss a chance to walk through here to fully appreciate it. 

The village has what it calls a cutting garden near the main garden. I presume it means residents (and guests?) are welcome to take some of these plants.

Above: Another couple businesses in the village center. 

Above and first two photos below: Homes in the village center perimeter area. 

Above and first two photos below: A few more frames from pictures I took in Camden Park. 

Above and below: These concrete sheep area in an open area of Camden Park, although I'm not sure of the significance. I do know the park was dedicated to Jenny Fitch who died in 1995, the year the park's development was completed. The park is also referred to as Jenny's Park. 

Above: With all the village's amenities, one would wonder why would anyone want to approach the real world. But apparently there are some who enjoy sitting on chairs on the village lawn and looking out onto Highway 501 traffic from afar. 

Pittsboro, NC: A county seat with historic and new courthouses, much more

Finding recent outings in Goldsboro and Clayton satisfying, I took the camera and headed west on Sunday to do photo profiles of two more communities that I'd had my eye on for a while. Today's post is about the first of those two, Pittsboro, the seat of Chatham County.

Pittsboro caught my eye because of how its longtime original and historic courthouse (shown in photo leading off the post), was built in 1881 and sits in the heart of downtown in the middle of a traffic roundabout. Its use as a courthouse was discontinued this millennium, and the present-day courthouse opened in January 2013. It is situated about two blocks south. 

I also was intrigued by the original courthouse because of a controversy when a statue of a Confederate soldier on the grounds since 1907 was removed in 2019, although not without some controversy. On my drive into Pittsboro on Sunday, I noticed a Confederate flag flying from a tall pole on property along East Street (Business Highway 64) a couple miles east of the town center. I couldn’t help but wonder if the flag — on what appears to be private property — had always been there ... or represented one local opponent’s sentiment in response to the decision to remove the statue from the former courthouse grounds.

The original courthouse was seriously damaged by fire in 2010, and when it was restored, a task force recommended keeping the second floor as a courtroom and using the main level as a historical museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Controversy aside, my visit to Pittsboro was fruitful. Although it is the county seat, Pittsboro is not the largest municipality in Chatham County. That distinction belongs to Siler City, which is west of Pittsboro. Pittsboro’’sent population is 4,537, according to the 2020 census; Siler City’s is about 8,500. 

The current Chatham County Justice Center (see photo above) is considerably larger than the 1881 building in the roundabout, with 87,000 square feet of space. It is a multi-story structure in the center flanked on both sides with wings containing one fewer floor. There is an equally expansive two-level courthouse annex (see photo below) positioned between the Justice Center and the historic former courthouse. That's the roundabout lawn you see in the foreground. 

The community's town government moved its base of operation a year ago to the rear portion of Main Street Station (see photo below), which sits at 287 East Street and also houses space for retail and office use. Before that move, Town Hall had shared space with the local police department down the road at 635 East Street (second photo below). Today, this building is wholly occupied by the P.D. 

 

In Pittsboro, I also came across and photographed the exterior of two breweries (Havoc and Red Moose), four churches (Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopal) and the Sheriff's Department, which, curiously, is closer to downtown Pittsboro than the local police department.

I also came across two satellite restaurants I am familiar with from visiting their locations in Cary, N.C., a large (population 180,000+) suburb of Raleigh that is part of the metro Triangle in Wake County. They are Doherty's Irish Pub and Big Mike's BBQ. 

I started my day early, allowing myself time to use the afternoon to photo profile an interesting residential development in rural northeastern Chatham County. I'll devote a separate post to that visit tomorrow and a third post the following day on the churches I photographed during the trip. To see a full gallery of images from my shoot in Pittsboro (including churches), follow the link in this sentence. 

A front/side view of Red Moose Brewery on East Street (above), with one of its delivery trucks (below), which I initially mistook for a fire engine. 

Above: The Columbus Masonic Lodge #102 AF & AM, which dates to 1838 and has a 9-inch "lean." Using my photo editing tools, I straightened a bit here. 

Above and below: Perspective and closeup shots of the Yoga Garden at 184 East St. 

A shopping center (above) on East Street in which TruValue Hardware is the dominant anchor. Below, B&T HVAC at 699 East Street.

   

Above: Big Mike's BBQ at 440 East Street.

Two more establishments on East Street, including First Bank (above) and an A-frame home housing several enterprises (above). 

Another view of the old courthouse (above) from the east side and a closeup of its three-stage cupola (below). 

Above: While I was doing my shoot at the courthouse roundabout, a couple of fire department engines made a real emergency run right in front of me.

A tight shot of the county government annex main entrance (above) and a closer look at the objects in the entranceway (below).  

Above: A peek at the first few businesses on the north side of Hillsboro Street, the road the front of the old courthouse looks out onto.

Above, the beer garden of Havoc Brewery Company and a side view of its facility facing Sanford Road. Below, the brewery's artsy window facade and entrance facing West Street. 

Above and below are two views of the section of businesses in a building on the west side of the old courthouse at the roundabout. The southside of the building features a mural depicted in the second and third photos below. 

Above, a view of the west side of the old courthouse, taken from West Street. Below, a view of it from its north (and front) side, taken from Hillsboro Street.  

Above and below: Closeups of a couple shops in that building with the mural featured above.  

Above: The town's welcome center also is near the old courthouse roundabout. 

Above and first nine photos below: Looks at other shops lining Hillsboro Street extending north from the old courthouse. 

I turned west onto Salisbury Street and came upon the seafood restaurant Postal Fish Co. (above), the Gunn & Messick law offices (below), then turned onto Rectory Street and found the West End Kitchen (second photo below) and ended back on West Street, where I encountered Blossom Floral Artistry and its delivery van (third photo below). 

Elsewhere on West Street are the Chatham County Sheriff's Office (above), the sheriff's office annex (below). 

Above: At 25 S. Rectory St. is the Twin Rivers Independent Senior Living residence. 

  

Sitting side by side on Sanford Road west of the old courthouse are Doherty's Irish Pub (above) and The Modern Life Deli (below). A closeup of the latter's mural is in the second photo below. 

Above and last three photos below feature more views of the present-day Chatham County Justice Center, including a side view integrating nearby spring blossoms into the composition (second photo below) and a rear view of the structure (third photo below).