How the town is built
Selma reads older and tighter than the rest of Johnston County because its uptown is built around the rails instead of around a modern commercial strip. The historic uptown blocks carry 1890s-through-1920s homes and storefronts on narrow lots where 16- and 20-yard dumpsters are the right fit. The mid-century residential blocks west of town are built on standard lots with mature landscaping. The US-70 Bypass side holds the newer subdivisions on wider streets. Commercially, the US-301 small-shop strip handles most retail work, and the industrial sites along the rail line east of uptown run the warehouse and light-manufacturing volume. There is no master-planned community pulling the mix one direction the way Flowers Plantation does in Clayton.