Old Ellerbe Road School - Shreveport, LA (The Stuff Legends Are Made Of)

Ellerbe Rd.

Shreveport, LA 71115

32.29622,-93.59637

*Artistic Photos Courtesy of https://bbrasseaux.wordpress.com/
            I have always been amazed at the complexity and size that urban legends can grow to. In many cases, it seems that the less legitimate evidence that is found, the more absurd the tales become. Such was the case with the “Doorway to Hell” at the SSA Convent. I can remember about ten years ago, my friend told me about this old abandoned house in Alexandria rumored to have been used to perform illegal abortions. The stories were of epic proportion, consisting of a maniacal evil doctor who would dispose of the fetuses in a well to the rear of the property. Knowing damn well there was

Map showing the school's location. Click to enlarge.

no evidence of such a business ever existing, we were still determined to pay this house a visit. What resulted were us trekking in the middle of the ghetto, almost getting my truck stuck in the mud, only to arrive at an old abandoned house that was being used as a crack house and rendezvous point for late-night “booty calls”. The ground was littered with used condoms, dirty syringes and pairs of underwear. To this day, I learned a valuable lesson that some urban legends are to be taken with a fine grain of salt.
             Additionally, many of these places can be quite dangerous due to the terrain and/or neighborhood. Most of these locations are posted and regularly patrolled by the police. Often times, such venues are better left alone in the hands of future storytellers, as they are not worth the dangers associated with them to investigate. Such is definitely the case with our next location. In over ten years of research on haunted locations in Louisiana, I don’t think that any spot is more mysterious and enveloped with more urban legends than the old Ellerbe Road School in Shreveport.

C.E. Byrd High School - Shreveport, LA (The Infamous Catacombs)

3201 Line Ave.

Shreveport, LA 71104

32.480412,-93.745716

www.cebyrd.com 

            When Clifton Ellis Byrd, Sr. first arrived in Shreveport in 1892 the city was in desperate need of an educational system. With a humble salary of seventy dollars a month, Byrd would rent out two rooms of a YMCA building and establish the first public high school. The first year’s enrollment garnered seventy students and the need for a larger school was needed so the school moved to the old Soady building on Crockett Street. After another move in 1899, the Caddo Parish School Board, now ran by its newly elected superintendent, C.E. Byrd, it was decided that a large permanent school finally be built. Construction would begin in 1924.
            In 1925, the honorably named C.E. Byrd High School was complete. To this day, it remains the largest and oldest high school in Shreveport. Home of the Yellow Jackets, C. E. Byrd High School is now a science and mathematics magnet school that has seen thousands upon thousands of students walk through its antique hallways. Although I have never been inside C.E. Byrd High School, I can relate to attending a school of such age.