The history of Shades Cahaba School in Homewood, Alabama Shades Cahaba; The First 100 Years celebrates the history of this remarkable school located in Homewood, Alabama. From its beginnings as the first High School in what was then rural south Jefferson County to an award-winning elementary school today. Follow the story of how the community came together to create the first consolidated school in Shades Valley, just over Red Mountain from a bustling Birmingham, Alabama. Follow the growth of the school in the 1920s, the struggle to keep it open during the depression of the 1930s, and the war years of the 1940s only to realize that the student population had outgrown the walls of the school. A new high school was built, and Shades Cahaba became an elementary school, one of three elementary schools which would become part of Homewood City Schools in 1970. The stories and history were collected as part of the Shades Cahaba Oral History Project, a podcast and blog. The project was created to collect and share the stories of the school, its alumni, teachers and parents.