Vaiden High School, constructed in 1943 in Vaiden, Mississippi, is a historic two-and-a-half-story, U-plan building made of poured monolithic concrete with a low-slope roof hidden behind parapet walls. Designed as a symmetrical structure, it included classrooms, an auditorium, and a later-added one-story wood-frame vocational building. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it served as a central educational hub for Carroll County’s white students until its closure, likely due to declining enrollment and the town’s economic downturn after Interstate 55 bypassed Vaiden in 1973 and a tornado devastated the downtown in 1990. By 2019, the school was abandoned, with reports indicating it had been repurposed as a community center before falling into disuse. Its sister school, North Vaiden High (later Percy Hathorn High), served Black students before integration and is now an antique mall called The Prissy Hen.

 

On my recent visit to the old Vaiden High School, I was shocked to find the front door wide open, revealing a glorious auditorium that felt frozen in time, as if it could have been used yesterday. Broken windows and scattered debris, however, betrayed its abandonment. As I ventured deeper, signs of its last use as a haunted house attraction—likely tied to a 2022 Halloween event—emerged, with eerie props and decorations overshadowing the school’s original features. Little remained of its educational past, but I snapped photos to capture the haunting mix of grandeur and decay. Before leaving, I photographed the exterior and closed the door behind me, hoping to preserve this fading Delta relic a little longer. My images contrast the auditorium’s elegance with the stark reality of neglect, a testament to Vaiden’s vanishing history.