History of Pine Valley School in Rodessa, Louisiana revisited.

Pine Valley School is one of Louisiana’s forgotten schools. Not much is know about the Pine Valley School in Rodessa, Louisiana. The Caddo Parish School District operated Pine Valley School as a public school from 1920 to 1987.


Pine Valley School was built and opened as a “Rosenwald school” for African American students in 1920 during the 1920-1921 school year at a cost of $2,300. This Rosenwald school was built on land owned by Catherine Tippins Watson and Robert Tippins. Robert Tippins served as trustee of Pine Valley School in 1920.

The first building for Pine Valley School was built as a four room school building with two teachers teaching grades 1 through 12. One teacher taught elementary grade (1-6) and the other teach taught high school grades (7-12). There were no middle school grades or junior high school grades at the time. The first Pine Valley School building was expanded into a four room school building in 1922.

Catherine Tippins Watson and Robert Tippins relinquished their property on a quit claim to the Caddo Parish School District on March 7, 1936. Although the heirs never had or claimed an interest in said property, this property has always belonged to Caddo Parish School District. R.T. Tippins was named as trustee of Pine Valley School in said deed from Jeff Tyson to Pine Valley School, as recorded in Conveyance Book 116, Page 736, for Caddo Parish, Louisiana. (Ref: Caddo Parish Conveyance Book 116, Page 736)

1951 is when Caddo Parish School District officials decided making plans for a new school building to built. The old Pine Valley School building was overcrowded and too compressed for student population to expand. Its facilities could not accommodate the growth of the student population. By the 1952-1953 school term, 120 students were enrolled at Pine Valley School. Plans for a new school building were laid out and contracted in 1952.

The old Rosenwald School building for this school was sold to a private homeowner after the 1951-1952 school year.


Pine Valley School was originally rebuilt in 1953 for the Caddo Parish School District. The school building was 30,802 square feet on 13.15 acres of land. The building was built as a one story masonry building on standard concrete foundations. The architecture resembles Ellerbe Road School (aka George Washington Carver Primary School & George Washington Carver High School) a huge deal. The layout of the actual school is similar too as this school is conjoined in the middle by a breezeway.

The exterior walls and interior walls were constructed of concrete masonry blocks with a brick veneer. The exterior doors are a combination of wood and steel units with both mixed usage of wood and steel frames. Windows were held structurally by steel frames.

A basketball court was aligned behind the school in 1970. This basketball court was built on a 20 foot x 20 foot concrete slab. The basketball court was later converted into a tennis court in 1978.

Pine Valley School was closed in 1987. Pine Valley School was abandoned in 1988. Staff of school board then declared that Pine Valley School is not needed for school purposes. It is unclear as to why Pine Valley School shut down in the first place.


On October 3, 1998, Zion Human Services signed an agreement of lease to use the former school property on a lease plan for their business. Staff recommended the president of Zion Human Services to sign the Agreement of Lease. Staff recommended the resolution by approving the lease of its Pine Valley School property to Zion Human Services. Zion Human Services was a non-profit corporation.

In 2006, the school was abandoned again and has been since then. As to why the school was abandoned again after leasing the school to a non-profit corporation is unknown. What is known is that Zion Human Services left the property abandoned in 2006.

By 2008, Pine Valley School fell victim to rural decay from being abandoned for so long. Moss spread across classrooms. Vines grew over the hallways. Shrubs came about in certain areas.

The Department of Environmental Quality ruled that all items in that school would have to be considered as asbestos-containing material and a complete demolition project would have to be done as an abatement job which is extremely expensive in 2016. Prior to any demolition, all asbestos-containing material must be removed. The complication with the Pine Valley School property is that it is two connected buildings, one in which the roof collapsed into the structure allowing moisture resulting in additional environmental issues, mold and asbestos. The problem with Pine Valley School is asbestos. (Ref; Shreveport Times, Page B9, Wednesday, March 9 2016)


Today a fence has been put up around the perimeter of Pine Valley School. The school building is now filled with cows. All the plant life is somehow well trimmed. A man who lives near the former school campus fires off gunshot rounds with rock salt. So be careful when exploring this school.

Other sections of the school have been damaged by minor vandalism. Some areas of the roof deck have collapsed or are missing. Several areas of the exterior walls have missing, broken masonry. These walls are in overall poor condition. Most of Pine Valley School has deteriorated beyond repair and is in need of demolition.

Pine Valley School is located at 16535 Hosston Rodessa Road, Rodessa, Lousiana, US 71044. Its other known address is 16535 Hosston Rodessa Road North, Ida, Louisiana, US 70144.