Valley Elementary School in Pelham 1964-2015

In 2015 Pelham City Schools ended use of Valley Elementary on U.S. 31 as a main school when a new replacement Pelham Oaks opened. Valley itself had opened in 1964 and thus had a long history. Both our children, son Amos and daughter Becca, attended in the 1990's. This website noted Valley had 729 K-2 students, which may have been the stats for the final year. When our kids attended the school had K-5 students. 

The building continued to be used by the city school system for various purposes until sold to a developer in August 2019. The plan for Valley is to create something similar to the company's Campus 805 entertainment project at a former school in Huntsville. As you can see below, some demolition began at the site in early December 2019. You can read a newspaper article updating progress at the site here and even more recent ones here and here.  

I took many of the photos below in August 2019. Also included are photos of some damage from the March 1994 tornado and various miscellaneous items. Comments are below some of the photos. 

I've written two previous blog posts with relevant material. One describes a postcard of Valley, probably from the 1970's based on the address on the card, "Route 2, Box 310" rather than the later "310 Opportunity Drive". Another post included Valley in a discussion of the history of schools in Pelham. 

A Facebook page for Valley Elementary lives on.... 

Here's that postcard of Valley Elementary. 

Blank signs seem strange after all those years....

After Pelham created its own school system, the elementary and middle schools Valley and Riverchase were branded with the high school mascot.

Demolition at Valley began in December 2019.

The photo above shows the school's playground in August 2019. Several photos below show damage from the March 27, 1994 tornado to the same area in back of the school.

Yes, that's Amos and Becca....

Daughter Becca and her second grade teacher at Valley, Marcia Baggett
ca. 1995

This 2018 book includes a number of photos of students at the city's first elementary school, Pelham Elementary. That school opened in the 1930's, then moved to a new building occupied until 1964 when Valley opened. The  second Pelham Elementary building was demolished in 1973 to make way for the current Pelham City Hall.  

The building on the left on the cover is Rutherford High School, destroyed by a tornado on April 12, 1909.

A Visit to the Oak Mountain State Park Demonstration Farm

On the Friday after Christmas last year our daughter Becca, son-in-law Matt, grandson Ezra, Dianne and I loaded up and headed for the Demonstration Farm at Oak Mountain State Park. Since the park is just down the road from our house, we didn't have far to go for the fun.

Oak Mountain State Park dates from 1927, when the State Land Act established it with 940 acres between Double Oak Mountain and Little Oak Ridge in Shelby County. The Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps made many improvements throughout the park between 1934 and 1941; evidence of that work can still be seen. In 1943 the National Park Service donated about 8,000 acres to the park that NPS had owned since the 1930's. After 1971 further improvements included the golf course and pro shop, cottages and the demonstration farm. 

On that Friday morning we had the farm almost to ourselves. An older couple appeared a little while after we did, and we were able to talk a bit with the employee on duty. Otherwise, it was just our little group and the animals!

Comments follow some of the photographs.

Matt holds Ezra, who is petting Taylor the donkey. Taylor was our instant friend and followed us all over the farm--even after we fed him!

We got to admire several miniature ponies.

Ah, the goats! There are quite a few of them, and they get up close and personal once you reach the office where feed is for sale.

Two peacocks were available for our viewing pleasure.

The goats climb whatever is available.

The goats are gathering....they were friendly but pushy when the feed cans appeared!

We could only admire the peacocks; unlike the other animals, they should not be petted. Becca told us the story of one of her classmates who was attacked in the face by one during an elementary school field trip to the farm. 

I failed to take any pictures of the many chickens at the Demonstration Farm. In addition to lots of "normal" ones they have several of these Silkie types like this bantam. We called them poodle chickens. The employee told us they are pretty dumb even for chickens and tend to just roam around in circles. 

Source: Wikipedia

Elegy for a Pelham Waffle House

Well, sometimes they close a favorite gin mill and sometimes it's a favorite Waffle House. Normally, chain store closures don't bother me too much even if it's one we've frequented. In these days of late capitalism, it's a feature of the retail landscape decimated by Internet commerce. But a Waffle House??

This one was located on Oak Mountain Park Road just as you head toward the state park's main entrance. We've driven past it a million times--maybe more--since we moved to our current home in 1995. 

We've also eaten there many times--Dianne and I, with and without one or more of the kids. Waffle House is a tradition in our family; brother Richard and I usually stop at one on our summer trips around the state. We all seem to like their breakfast food any time of the day. I think I've only ordered a non-breakfast meal at a Waffle House once, many years ago. I don't know what my excuse was. A few years ago I gave my kids Waffle House coffee mugs for Christmas, for Pete's sake. 

Anyway, I digress. I'm not sure why this particular Waffle House would close. The location near an Interstate exit, a large, busy state park and both a concert venue and Pelham's Civic Complex would seem to have insured continued success. Oh, well, at least there's another Waffle House in Pelham...

To add insult to injury, the company's web site lists this location as still open. 

UPDATE: On 8 Sept 2021 the Shelby County Reporter published an article on the business replacing the Waffle House.

UPDATE: The new business replacing the Waffle House will open soon; see the photos at the end which I took on 22 October 2021.  

Goodbye to Kai's Koffee in Pelham

Our favorite coffee shop in Pelham, or anywhere really, closed on July 19. We started going to Kai's Koffee at it's first location in the city and followed them to the new one on US 31 across from the post office. We've spent many pleasant hours there since then downing excellent coffee and other drinks and eating scones, muffins or wraps. 

All things must pass, but we'll miss the place....a few photos and more comments are below. The photos, taken between November 2014 and July 2019 are in roughly reverse chronological order.

 Buck Creek Coffee opened in the location on July 23. We'll be giving them a try and wish them success! Stacie Mullins will remain as manager of the shop.  

UPDATE: The Shelby County Reporter published an article 2 Sept 2021 noting that the shop had moved to another location in that same retail strip in Pelham.

In July 2015 I posted a piece on "Ghostly Signs of Pelham's Video Past"  that included the image below. That slot was eventually covered up by the sign shown above. 

Dianne brought one of her coffee plants to the shop; it's even produced a few beans!

The coffee plant will have a new home at KTL Insurance next door. 

Here's the coffee plant in November 2016. 

Part of the decor of the shop included many humorous signs related to coffee.