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LHS ONLINE ARCHIVE
Lafayette High School has a rich and varied past, beginning with its neo-Renaissance national landmark status building, built in 1901-03. Many of our graduates and former students have gone on to become household names, important civic leaders, and other professionals.
Our little online journey into our past doesn't even begin to touch on many of the school's people and their accomplishments, but we hope that it gives you a taste of  what Lafayette High School was and is. Our effort has just begun, and all of the material we hope to place on the page is not yet ready. Please excuse our cyberdust while we build this page.
The source for much of our information comes from Lafayette's complete set of yearbooks, dating from the school's opening on September 10, 1903. From the beginning until 1924, the Lafayette Oracle yearbook was issued in small booklet form several times each year, comprising the modern-day equivalents of school newspaper, literary magazine, and yearbook. Pictured here is the cover of the Commencement 1904 issue, commemorating Lafayette's first graduating class.
Other sources of our rich heritage come from the graduates themselves, former and present faculty, and other lore handed down from our predecessors.
Read a Brief History of Lafayette
 Another factor contributing to Lafayette's rich past and exciting future is that it has been blessed with a history of long-standing and continuous leadership. In the more than 100 years of our history, we have had only eight previous principals, of which the "reigns" of two cover more than half of the school's existence. Mrs. Jacquelyn Baldwin, our current principal, is only the school's ninth principal. The most revered, however, is probably Capt. Calvert K. Mellen, pictured at left, who served as our second principal from 1906 until his retirement in 1934, a period of 28 years. Alums who attended Lafayette during "Cap's" era continued to speak decades later in reverent tones of a much-loved and inspirational man.
Lafayette's alumni are a special group of people, fiercely loyal to "The Old Plant" and all that it meant to them and their friends during their days as students, and into their lives after LHS. Today, the LHS Alumni Association numbers more than 7,000 in its membership and continues to support the school and her students through scholarships and other financial assistance for clubs, teams, and activities.
Do you have a special recollection of Lafayette? We'd like to post comments and reminiscences from alumni and other former students about Lafayette -- her dedicated faculty, her many thousands of students, the building itself, events, and so on. If you have a special story or comment, please use our convenient online reply form or e-mail us at aofbflo@mail.serve.com
Sites That Discuss Lafayette's Architecture:
Preservation Coalition of Erie County
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