Classes started at Shades Cahaba High School on September 19, 1920 and the school has continuously served students in Homewood for the past 100 years. This project was started to record the memories of those that attended and worked at Shades Cahaba and those that just have a great story to tell.
The Book
To celebrate the centennial of Shades Cahaba, I produced 23 podcast episodes and various blog posts covering the history of the school, the community and Homewood creating it’s own school system, all of which are in this website. I used these stories and interviews to write the book Shades Cahaba: The First 100 Years which is on sale now. Hardback, paperback and Kindle versions are available at Amazon.com. A paperback version is available at Bookshop.org and an electronic version at Apple Books.
If you are a bookstore and would like to place this book in your store, it is now available to order through IngramSpark.
Episodes
Listen to the stories told by those who went to Shades Cahaba. Teachers, students, staff and parents. The school means something a little different to each person. Visit the Episodes Page for more content.
Show Host
My name is Shawn Wright and I attend Shades Cahaba Elementary from 1970 through 1974. My first year was in Mrs. Lemmon’s 2nd grade class. Both of my children have attend Shades Cahaba and my youngest “graduated” during Shades Cahaba’s 100th year. You can find out more about me at ShawnWright.net.
Blog Posts
Shades Cahaba Principals
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 served Shades...
Shades Cahaba Coaches
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 known as...
Girls Baseball Champions 1923
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 Underpass
I shot this video around 2010 with my new iPhone 4. The video was terrific back then. I shared it on the Facebook page “I went to Shades Cahaba when the main entrance was on Hollywood Blvd.” There was a tremendous response from Shades Cahaba alumni. I thought you might like to see the Underpass.