Lafayette Middle School (Formerly Lafayette Elementary School)

Like many institutional buildings of the early 20th century, this building was built in the style known as Collegiate Gothic, a type of Gothic Revival building design. William T. Nolan was the architect for the building. His design, typical for local schools built during this time, used the architectural example of Ivy-League universities such as Harvard and Yale for the building. There are two other local school buildings built within three years of Lafayette Middle School that were also designed in the Collegiate Gothic style. N. P. Moss School, now known as Dr. Raphael A. Baranco Elementary School, was built in 1929, and is featured on page 39 of this book. Judice Middle School, also built in 1929, is featured on page 91 of this book. Lafayette Middle School design uses palatial-like design expression, consisting of a central pavilion and two end pavilions connected by hyphen wings. It was originally built as Lafayette’s second high school. Unfortunately, Lafayette’s first high school, which was located on the corner of Jefferson and East Main Streets, was demolished early in the 20th century because of foundation failure issues that were not financially feasible to repair at the time.