New old traffic signals coming to Selma, finishing a project two decades in the making

People who drive through downtown Selma understand they’re driving over historic streets, but they might not know that they are driving under some history as well.

Most of us don’t pay much attention to the traffic signals that hang above the intersections in downtown Selma, but according to Barrett Williams, president of the nonprofit American Street Scape Society in St. Louis, “they have architectural value. They are unique, and they are rare.”

The Selma City Council recently approved a resolution to bring more of these lights built during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations to town. A news release from Ward 3 Councilman Clay Carmichael said he will use funding from his ward’s Alabama Trust “Oil Lease” Discretionary Fund account “to finish a restoration project that began more than two decades ago.”

To read more subscribe to the print edition at selmasun.com/subscribe.