Selma Pioneer Village

A 15-acre collection of 1880s agricultural-era buildings preserved on the outskirts of Selma

The Selma Pioneer Village is a collection of around fifteen historic buildings from the 1880s and 1890s, gathered from across the Selma area and reassembled on a 15-acre site on Art Gonzales Parkway. The buildings give a tangible sense of what a small San Joaquin Valley agricultural community looked like before the arrival of industrial farming.

Among the structures: a Queen Anne Victorian house, St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church (built by Danish immigrant farmers in the 1890s), the Unger Opera House (now used as a performing arts theatre), a railroad depot, a doctor's office, and the original Selma schoolhouse. Agricultural equipment from the early raisin and grain farming era is displayed throughout the grounds, along with household furnishings and tools from the settlement period.

The village hosts festivals and events through the year, including a harvest festival in September timed around the raisin harvest. It is free or low-cost to visit. The grounds are pleasant for a walk regardless of any particular event. Located on Art Gonzales Parkway at Highland Avenue, on the south side of town.

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The Pioneer Village owes its existence to Art Gonzales, a local businessman who began collecting and relocating historic Selma-area buildings in 1980 — essentially saving them from demolition by moving them to a single site. Gonzales spent fifteen years acquiring and restoring the buildings at his own expense before donating the village to the city. The parkway alongside the site is named in his honour.