Historic Districts

Selma is fortunate to have three (3) historic districts that are on the National Register of Historic Places: Downtown Selma Historic District, Richard B. Harrison School District and West Selma Historic District.

Selma was officially chartered as a Town on February 11, 1873, but the Town’s true birth took place on May 1, 1867, when there was a public sale of lots around a newly established station on the North Carolina Railroad. Selma was born as a “Railroad Town,” and our rail heritage is still evident today. The Town is home to the Mitchener Station, which was built in 1855 and thought to be the oldest surviving train station in North Carolina. The Town of Selma is home to three distinct historical districts: The Downtown Selma Historical District, the Richard B. Harrison School District, and the West Selma Historical District.

For more information on the Downtown Selma Historical District, visit the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Downtown Selma Historical District

The Downtown Selma Historic District is located in the historic commercial area of the town of Selma in Johnston County, North Carolina. Selma is situated in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain approximately thirty-two miles southeast of Raleigh. The Johnston County seat of Smithfield is less than two miles to the southwest. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Selma has been located at the junction of several major transportation corridors. The town was established on the North Carolina Railroad in 1867 and incorporated in 1873. Selma grew significantly after 1886, when a branch of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad intersected with the North Carolina Railroad making Selma an important rail junction in eastern North Carolina. In addition to rail transportation routes, several major highways pass through or near Selma. Interstate 95, the major north-south corridor on the East Coast, lies just east of Selma and was completed from Fayetteville to Kenly, which is just north of Selma, in 1961. U.S. 301, which begins in Delaware and ends in Sarasota, Florida and parallels Interstate 95 throughout most of the Carolinas and Virginia, runs north-south through Selma and assumes the name Pollock Street within the town limits. U.S. 70, an east-west highway that runs from the community of Atlantic in Carteret County, North Carolina, to Globe, Arizona, passes just to the southwest of Selma.

Historic Richard Harrison School District

Richard B. Harrison School District

Richard B. Harrison School occupies three parcels—on West Noble Street and on South Brevard Street— on the west side of the town of Selma in Johnston County, North Carolina. The school sits on 6.84 acres in a historically African American residential area. The site contains an agricultural building constructed in 1953 with a 1965 bricklaying shop addition; a gymnasium and classroom building built in 1955; and the 1956 elementary school classroom building. A baseball field from ca. 1950 and a mid-twentieth-century concrete block pump house also occupy the parcels. The gymnasium and classroom building is used for community basketball games and to house a Head Start preschool, while the elementary school building remains unoccupied. The Richard B. Harrison Alumni Association owns the agricultural building and bricklaying shop and uses it as its headquarters and meeting space. The site occupied by Harrison School served as the hub for African American public education from the late nineteenth century into the 1980s. Three additional buildings devoted to education once stood on the parcels. In 1880, a two-room school, which is no longer extant, was built at the south side of the parcel. Later, an early twentieth-century frame school that had served white students was moved to the site and functioned until it burned on February 4, 1933. It was replaced by a three-story, brick building constructed in 1935 with New Deal funding. In 1948, that building received a ten-room addition. The 1935 school and its addition were demolished in 1995.

West Selma Historical District

The West Selma Historic District encompasses approximately ninety acres of a primarily residential area west of downtown Selma in Johnston County. Selma is situated in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain about thirty-two miles southeast of Raleigh, the state capitol. The Johnston County seat of Smithfield is less than two miles to the southwest. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Selma has been located at the junction of several major transportation corridors. The town was established on the North Carolina Railroad in 1867 and incorporated in 1873. Selma grew significantly after 1886, when a branch of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad intersected with the North Carolina Railroad making Selma an important rail junction in eastern North Carolina. In addition to rail transportation routes, several major highways pass through or near Selma. Interstate 95, the major north-south corridor on the East Coast, lies just east of Selma and was completed from Fayetteville to Kenly, which is just north of Selma, in 1961. U.S. 301, which begins in Delaware and ends in Sarasota, Florida, and parallels Interstate 95 throughout most of the Carolinas and Virginia, runs north-south through Selma and assumes the name Pollock Street within the town limits. U.S. 70, an east-west highway that runs from the community of Atlantic in Carteret County, North Carolina, to Globe, Arizona, passes just to the southwest of Selma.

Certificate of Appropriateness

Certificate of Appropriateness Required.

From and after the designation of a landmark or a historic district, no exterior portion of any building or other structure (including walls, fences, light fixtures, steps and pavement or other appurtenant features), or any above ground utility structure, or any type of outdoor advertising sign shall be erected, altered, restored, moved, or demolished within the Historic Districts until after an application for a certificate of appropriateness as to exterior architectural features has been approved. For purposes of this article “exterior architectural features” shall include the architectural style, general design and general arrangement of the exterior of a building or other structure, including the kind and texture of the building material, the size and scale of the building, and the type and style of all windows, doors, signs and other appurtenant fixtures. In the case of outdoor advertising signs, “exterior” architectural features shall be construed to mean the style, material, size, and location of all such signs.
Such a certificate of appropriateness shall be issued prior to the issuance of a zoning permit and building permit or any other permit granted for purposes of constructing altering or demolishing buildings or structures. A certificate of appropriateness shall be required whether a land use permit is required. Any land use permit or other permit not issued in conformity with this section shall be invalid.
The State of North Carolina (including its agencies, political subdivisions and instrumentalities), the Town of Selma and all public utilities shall be required to obtain a certificate of appropriateness for construction, alteration, moving or demolition within the historic district or on designated landmarks.

Procedures for Approval of Certificates of Appropriateness.

Application submittal requirements. Applications for certificates of appropriateness shall be filed with the planning director.
The planning director shall prescribe the form(s) on which applications are made. The application shall be filed not less than twenty-one (21) calendar days prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Historic Properties Commission. Each application shall be accompanied by sketches, drawings, photographs, specifications, descriptions and other information of sufficient detail to clearly show the proposed exterior alterations, additions, changes or new construction. The names and mailing addresses of property owners filing and/or subject to the application and the addresses of property within one hundred (100) feet on all sides of the property which is the subject of the application must also be filed. The Commission shall adopt, through its rules of procedure, appropriate procedures for pre-application meetings.
No application shall be accepted by the planning director unless it complies with the requirements in the preceding subsection.
The historic district commission may specify criteria for situations in which the planning director may waive any of the application material requirements.