As soon as the school was built, teams were formed, and Shades Cahaba entered into competition with other Birmingham area high schools, which had already been competing for a number of years. This was no small feat, and you only need to listen to the episode with...
During Shades Cahaba’s 100th Celebration party in the fall of 2019, I met many former Shades Cahaba students, including some who attended school when it was a high school. One of those was Denny Pappas, who brought along his family. In the photo below, Dr....
It is the second day that Shades Cahaba and other schools around the state have been shut down due to the state of emergency declared by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. Coronavirus COVID-19 has been quickly spreading around the world and is now in our community. To help...
There were many early schools in Shades Valley in the late 1800s and early 1900s. You can learn more about those on the Homewood Elementary School episode or in the book Homewood: Life of a City by Sheryl Summe. The two that I have images of are listed here. Union...
Community leader and educator B.M. Montgomery established a school for black children in the 1920s in Rosedale Park. They initially met in Montgomery’s home. Sometimes in the 1930s a wooden building was built up on the hill in the northeastern section of the...
Oak Grove, what we now know as West Homewood, was annexed into the city of Homewood in 1955. This brought Hall-Kent Elementary into the Homewood Family of schools. Schools in this area go all the way back to the 19th century and includes the Zelosophian Academy which...
The community of Edgewood became a full-fledge town in 1920 and soon after, leaders decided they needed their own school. Six acres of land just off Broadway was purchased and the town deeded five of the acres to the Jefferson County Board of Education in 1924. Before...
We talk about Shades Cahaba a lot on this podcast for obvious reasons. With a school that taught grades 1-12 you get a little tunnel vision and start to think this is all there was in Homewood. Not true. There were other schools, and we are going to talk about a few...
Bill Cather found these varsity letters when he was digging around looking for his Shades Cahaba scrapbooks to share with me. It’s the varsity letters that were awarded to players at Shades Cahaba during the 1950s. Bill tells me that similar to what Jeff...
This photo is in the display case in the front office of Shades Cahaba. I borrowed it to share it with you. It’s the class picture of Mrs. Florence Allen’s 5th Grade class. This is the school year 1963-1964.
