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July 1939. Women of the congregation of Wheeler's Church on steps with brooms and buckets on annual clean up day. Gordonton, North Carolina. View full size.
I've seen a lot of old churches out in the country with two doors. One old-timer I stopped and yakked with told me that originally men and women sat apart and had separate entrances. I think there's some precedent in Judaism and the early Christian church. Some congregations continued the practice right up to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Several churchly web sites suggest this is true, viz. e.g.,
http://www.kemptownumc.org/history_1.html
Originally Wheeley's Church. Known as Wheeler's after 1830
Looking at maps of the Gordonton, NC, area, it looks like it should actually be Wheeler's (not Wheeley's) Church. The Wheeler's Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery is at the intersection of Wheeler's Church Road and Union Grove Church Road, and one might assume the church was or is still at that same location. (Yahoo maps link.)
[Could be. But the caption info in the Library of Congress archives says Wheeley's Church. - Dave]
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