Lafayette Middle School (Formerly Lafayette Elementary School)

Like many institutional buildings of the early 20th century, Lafayette Middle School Building was built in the style known as Collegiate Gothic, a type of Gothic Revival design. William T. Nolan was the architect for the building, and his design was typical for local schools built during this time. He used the architectural example of Ivy-League universities such as Harvard and Yale. There are two other local school buildings that were built within three years after Lafayette Middle School was built, and they 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 it is featured on page 39 of this book. Judice Middle School, also built in 1929, is featured on page 91 of this book. The design of Lafayette Middle School uses a palatial-like expression, consisting of a central pavilion and two end pavilions, connected by hyphen wings. It was originally built as Lafayette’s second high school. Lafayette’s first high school, which was built on the southeast 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.