Selma was founded along this street in the late spring and early summer of 1880 by Jacob E. Whitson, George B. Otis, Monroe Snyder, and E. H. Tucker as a 40 acre townsite mapped from Whitson's homestead and wheat field. Selma boomed and first prospered here, but a series of fires shifted most growth and the main business district across the tracks. Incorporation in March 1893 made Selma the second city in Fresno County.