Preservation Month 2025: Chock-a-block full of history
Published 10:20 am Monday, May 19, 2025
Former YMCA buidling. | Courtesy of the Selma Redevelopment Authority
The Sullivan Building | Courtesy of the Selma Redevelopment Authority
The former George Wilson Community Center. | Courtesy of the Selma Redevelopment Authority
The former Edistone Hotel | Courtesy of the Selma Redevelopment Authority
The Old Historic Depot Museum | Courtesy of the Selma Redevelopment Authority
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By Sarah Aghedo
Special to The Selma Times-Journal
Selma is so rich in history. From the time indigenous people settled on its riverbanks up through the Civil War and Civil Rights eras, there always should be tourists coming here to absorb the stories from the wonderful built landscape of Selma.
It will take work to preserve this setting for future generations, but within a few blocks of the bridge that everyone comes to walk across, there are many stories to be told.
It is fascinating to see the interconnection among these stories, all still locked into their places here by the structures representing them. For example, there’s the first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) building across from City Hall. Built in 1886 entirely from local donations, it was the first in the state, and local donors wanted it to be a “monument to the intelligent and practical philanthropy of our city.”
Included in that philanthropy, one of the main YMCA donors, Joseph Hardie, was credited by Booker T. Washington as being an instrumental person in helping Tuskegee University to start.
Another edifice reflecting Selma’s impact on higher education is the Edistone Hotel on Water Avenue. Like the nearby St. James Hotel, it is a rare, antebellum, riverfront hotel. It housed the office of the Freedmen’s Bureau during Reconstruction. The Freedmen’s Bureau Commissioner, Wager Swayne, was instrumental in helping both Talladega College and the Lincoln Normal School, which is now Alabama State University, to get their starts.
A different kind of education was had in the Sullivan building on the corner of Franklin Street and Alabama Avenue. Built shortly after 1913, it was a key African American professional building with offices for generations of dentists and the Boynton’s insurance agency. The Dallas County Voters League was reformed here in 1936 and voter education classes were held. When Dr. Bernard Lafayette came to town in 1963, with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), voter registration clinics took place there.
Just down the street from the Sullivan building is the George Wilson Community Center which was built in 1936 using Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds lobbied for by Amelia Boynton, Charles Adams, and Dr. E.W. Gamble. During segregation, this building provided a place of respite. Its auditorium was put to good use too as “all of the big bands like Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino, and others came to play” according to Mrs. Boynton.
In addition to space, the community center had art: two huge murals painted by Birmingham artist Felix B. Gaines were hung there originally. These days you can see the murals in the Old Depot Museum at the end of Water Avenue. The Old Depot Museum, on the grounds of the former Confederate Foundry, houses a fascinating amalgamation of Selma’s heritage, from Civil War weapons to photographs of early 20th century rural life to the records from the Good Samaritan Hospital after Bloody Sunday in 1965.
Thus, within walking distance of the iconic bridge and the hotel where Jesse James stayed, there are centuries of history to be explored. Fortunately, Selma still has many of the unique structures that help to tell these stories and provide an authentic context for them.
Sarah Aghedo is the executive director of the Selma Redevelopment Authority. She is writing a series of stories highlighting Preservation Month. To contact her, please call 334-407-9313 or email her at info@selmara.org. For more information, log on to www.selmara.org.
