When I first started this project, my goal was to record simple oral histories from the men and women who attended Shades Cahaba High School. I had no plan for these recordings other than to donate them to a library for safekeeping. The oral history project turned...
Articles about the book “Shades Cahaba: The First 100 Years” were published in local publications recently. Ingrid Schnader of the Homewood Star interviewed Shawn Wright for an article published on October 29, 2020, titled “Shades Cahaba: 100 years...
From the Shades Cahaba PTO: In celebration of the 100th Birthday of our school building, the students of Shades Cahaba put their heads and research skills together to give a name to the owl that has watched over his countless students. Historian, Shawn Wright,...
One hundred years ago today, on September 19, 1920, Shades Cahaba High School opened its doors to the students in the Shades Cahaba School district. There were four high school grades, five teachers and 156 students. School officials invited everyone in the area to...
On September 6, 1920, 100 years ago today, Shades-Cahaba High School was dedicated. The day was Labor Day, and it seemed fitting as it is unofficially known as the last day of summer, a notice to students that if they hadn’t started already, they would be going...
At the end of the 1960s, Homewood was looking to start its own school system. With the support of the Mayor and City Council, the first Homewood Board of Education was established on December 22, 1969. The board took authority 50 years ago today, on July 1,...
Shades Cahaba School has had just nine principles in the first 100 years. The first principal, James Ward stayed for 23 years before he was “kicked upstairs” to the Jefferson County Board of Education. Here is a list of the Principals and the years they...
During Shades Cahaba’s 29 years as a high school, there were 6 coaches and they coached all the sports. Mainly football and baseball and early on basketball. The first decade saw the school go through most of the coaches until Oren Prentice Mitchell, better...
In the athletics episode, I mentioned that the Shades Cahaba girls baseball team was the 1923 champions. Here is the writeup in the Owl Yearbook. Listen to the episode at https://dev.shadescahabahistory.com/podcast/shades-cahaba-athletics
The last post featured the 1949 majorettes, but they are nothing without the band. Here are a few photos of the band in the 1940s. The featured image is of the 1949 band. The girls at the back are the majorettes featured in the last blog post. 1944 Band 1947 Band 1940...
