Dallas Academy facelift coming by May

Dallas Academy turns 130 years old this year, and it is expected to get a facelift.

After shutting down following a mysterious fire in October 2017, the former elementary school turned nonprofit art hub is scheduled to be renovated this year.

A construction firm has been chosen and given until May 11 to complete renovations. Capital Program Management, the company representing the City of Selma and the city’s insurance company AMIC, awarded the bid to Lovelady Construction. The bid stipulates the work is to be completed no later than May 11. The repairs to the Dallas Academy building will put each floor back as it was but bring it up to a much more modern quality standard. 

Early in the morning of Oct. 15, 2017, an arsonist set the fire that damaged the Dallas Academy building, and three other fires were set nearby during the same time frame. A photograph of a person of interest was released by the state fire marshal, however, to-date no arrests have been made.

Dallas Academy was built in 1889, originally housing a private school funded by the Ladies Educational Society of Selma. It later became Selma’s first public school, according to rural southwest Alabama archives. Selma’s public school system is the second oldest in Alabama. The Dallas Academy school closed in the early 1960s. 

More recently it housed the popular Selma Ceramic Art Program on the first floor, which received the most damage in the fire. According to one person associated with the program, once repairs are completed the Ceramic Art Program should resume, but no exact date has been given. Other floors housed the Boy Scouts and other organizations. 

Dallas Academy is part of Selma’s “Old Town Historic District” and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Selma Dallas County Historic Preservation Society created a GoFundMe page in March 2018 to raise $25,000 for renovation of Dallas Academy. It reached about $3,200.