LAFAYETTE'S HISTORY 1939-1989

By Thomas E. Templin, Class of 1957 & Contributing authors from class of 1989

This is by no means meant to be a current work. It is over ten years old. Please forgive typos, they are a result of scanning OCR technology and will be fixed soon.

                 Lafayette High School's 50-year journey through time is a story of Change, growth, and continuity. The opening of Lafayette, in September 1939, was an important step in the advancement of education in Fayette County. It was the culmination of a long struggle to overthrow the small-scale, 'little red schoolhouses mode of education that had prevailed in the county--that is, outside Lexington itself---during the 19th century and into the early years of the 20th century.

                In those years, education in Fayette County was based on a patchwork structure of small, highly localized school districts. About 40 of them existed, each with very limited resources and educational offerings. Driven by the efforts of reform-minded superintendents Nannie Faulconer and D. Y. Dunn, there was a process of gradual consolidation and reorganization to create Larger, better schools.

                This began with the opening of the county's first consolidated school, Greendale, in 1910. It continued with the establishment of other schools, including Picadome and Bryan Station High Schools. Finally, it produced Lafayette, a large and truly modern high school-in fact, one of the most modem in the South at the time it opened.

                Lafayette registered its first students an Labor Day, 1939. The first classes were held the next day, September 5. The initial student body-created by combining the top three grades from Bryan Station with grades seven through twelve of the old Picadome High-numbered more than 900. The faculty included 49 teachers, led by Lafayette's first principal, Dr. A.B. Crawford.

                Lafayette's handsome, well-equipped new building was an immediate source of school pride- Built for $300,000 (using federal aid in the form of a Public Works Administration grant), it had 32 classrooms and was designed for 1,000 students. It was not, however, Lafayette's only building. The school was located on what had been the grounds of an orphanage, and major buildings of that former institution remained on the campus for many years, used for various purposes. Another building, located directly behind Lafayette's main building, was under construction as the school opened.

                A particular strength of Lafayette was that it offered both general courses and an extensive program of vocational education. Its unusually broad curriculum drew favorable attention in regional educational circles. In fact, the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools viewed Lafayette's program so favorably that it requested a published account for wide distribution across the South.

In these early years, Lafayette had a distinctly rural flavor. A sizable number of the students came from farm families. The Future Farmers of America was a leading student organization. Moreover, the school’s setting was itself semi-rural. Lafayette was on the outskirts of suburban Lexington, in an area where farm fields and tobacco barns were intermingled with a few residential streets. Rosemont Carden was the only street to the immediate south; beyond it, open farmland stretched away toward Nicholasville.

                The opening of Lafayette coincided with the start of World War H. On September 1, 1939, three days before the school registered its first students, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The United States would not be at war until Pearl Harbor, more than two years later. But a major national defense buildup was soon under way, and Lafayette was involved in it. In July 1940, a national defense trade school- in part, a reorientation of the existing vocational pro- gram-was set up at Lafayette.

After Pearl Harbor, the defense trade school was greatly expanded. Additional buildings were erected on the Lafayette campus to house it. For a time, the cafeteria was operated on a 24-hour basis to meet the needs of the pro- gram. Intensive training was given in such fields as welding, sheet metal work, radio, and industrial electricity. By 1942, the defense trade school was turning out 8M trained men and women every ten weeks for work in shipyards, munitions plants, aircraft factories, and other war-related jobs.

Lafayette's regular students also were caught up in the war effort. Many were active in the school’s Victory Corps, which was involved in such activities as Red Cross work, military drill and preinduction training. Of course, many Lafayette students entered the armed forces shortly after graduating. Others left school to join up. More than 300 from Lafayette served in World War 11.

The end of the war brought Lafayette into a quieter era. But it was also a time of growth and change. The area around the school filled in with residential streets in the early postwar years. Lexington's suburbs expanded steadily, increasing the county's population outside Lexington's city limits. This meant rising enrollment at Lafayette.

                In 1951, the growing number of students made it necessary to shift grades seven and eight into space vacated by the vocational school, which had moved into a new building on campus. These grades were also set up as a separate school--Lafayette Junior High-which was expanded in 1954 to take in the ninth grade.

                But these moves were not a lasting answer to the problem of rising numbers at Lafayette. By the 1962-63 school year, crowding had gotten so bad that it was necessary to resort to double sessions. Me morning session ran from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., the afternoon session from 1:30 pm to 7:30 pm.) The crunch was relieved in the fall of 1963 when Jessie Clark and Tates Creek junior High Schools opened, at which time Lafayette Junior High went out of existence.

But Lafayette kept on growing as a senior high school. In the mid-sixties its enrollment stood above 1,800 and by the end of the decade topped 2,000. Lafayette had become the state's largest three-grade senior high school. To serve properly a student body of such size, additional facilities were needed. They were constructed during the period from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies.

In 1965-66 the $1.3 million H. L Davis Student Center went up alongside the original building. Named to honor Lafayette’s second (and longest-serving) principal, it contains a 2,400-seat gym, a cafeteria large enough to serve up to 900, and a 12-room science department. At the time it was built, the original gym was converted into a library/audio visual center and the original cafeteria into more classrooms.

In 1972 a $300,000 industrial arts and music building was erected just behind the H.L. Davis Center. In 1975-77 an extensive $4.5 million construction and renovation project brought Lafayette into its current form.

A 29-classroom addition, named to honor veteran campus foreman John Colliver, was constructed across the back of the original building The interior of the original building was renovated and an air conditioning system was put in. A ramp replaced the steps at Lafayette's main entrance and an elevator was installed, making all parts of the interconnected complex (excluding the industrial arts and music building) accessible to a person in a wheelchair. With the completion of the Colliver Addition, some of the buildings that had stood for decades at Lafayette became superfluous. They were [destroyed], giving the back of the campus an entirely new look.

                One of the most important developments in Lafayette history was the integration of the school. Lafayette's first black student attended the summer session of 1955 and the first black graduates received their diplomas in 1958. The first black teachers, Viola Greene and Betty Newby, joined the faculty in 1963.

                During the early years of integration, there were not many blacks at Lafayette. It was only after the closing of all-black Douglas High School in 1963 and the merger of the Lexington and Fayette County school systems in 1967 that black students came to Lafayette in substantial numbers. Today they account for 11 percent of the school’s enrollment of about 1,850. There are 11 black faculty members, out of a total faculty of 116.

                The history of student life at Lafayette presents a pattern of both change and continuity. There is much in the early life of the school--the basketball team, the band, the Debate Team, The Lafayette Times --that would be entirely familiar to today's students. Yet much has changed over the years.

                One of the most important early student organizations, the Future Farmers of America, is gone. The old rivalry with Henry Clay has softened as a new rivalry with Tates Creek has emerged. Elements of student life that once seemed imperishable traditions--the Senior Ring Dinner, Class Night, the Charmettes-have disappeared. New groups and events, such as the Ski Club, the Senior Dinner Dance, and the highly popular follies-type production "Senior Class Live,' have come onto the Lafayette scene.

Today there are more, and more varied, student organizations than in earlier years. Student life has become richer, more diversified. But the school has, inevitably, lost some of the cohesion and unity it had when it was a smaller, simpler place.

In the late sixties, student life at Lafayette entered its most unsettled period. The problems and issues of the time-Vietnam, integration, the rise of the youth counterculture, the spread of drug use-produced friction and controversy. Along with the larger issues, and often closely related to them, were disputes about such matters as the pledge of allegiance, campus security, student dress and hair styles, and student rights generally. Though the impact at Lafayette was not nearly as great as in some places, the school’s atmosphere was considerably affected by the mixture of idealism, confrontation and self-indulgence that marked one of the most turbulent periods of American history.

Since the mid-seventies, Lafayette has been much calmer. Mirroring national trends, its students have become more academically oriented and career-minded. It may be that they are less idealistic as well--though this cannot be said conclusively. Certainly idealism is very much alive at Lafayette today, evident in the level of student interest and involvement in such groups as programs as SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving), DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), Leadership Lafayette, and Teens Who Care.

One constant connecting all periods of Lafayette's history is a high level of academic and extracurricular achievement. Lafayette students have won upward of 2,000 scholarships over the life of the school. There, have been scores of National Merit Finalists. Students representing Lafayette have had repeated success in speech, debate, drama, and music competitions. The school band has prevailed in a number of top-level interscholastic contests. The Lafayette Times and the Marquis have won many awards for excellence in student journalism.

                As academic team competition has come into fashion in recent years, Lafayette has shown prowess there too. The school’s academic team was organized in 1984. The next year it tied for the national championship in the prestigious Knowledge Master Open competition, conducted by computer. And in 1986 and 1987 Lafayette won the Kentucky Governor's Cup, often seen as tantamount to the state academic championship.

Lafayette has many athletic triumphs to its credit as well. Boys basketball is the sport in which it has had its most famous success. Lafayette has won five state championships in this sport, more than any other Kentucky high school during the last 50 years. The basketball Generals were especially strong in the fifties, when Coach Ralph Carlisle's teams captured the state tournaments of 1950, 1953, and 1957. Maurice Jackson coached Lafayette to the state title in 1942 and Jock Sutherland did so in 1979.

                Lafayette also has won state championships in baseball football, boys track, boys cross country, boys and girls gymnastics, boys and girls swimming, boys and girls golf, and boys and girls tennis. In all, counting both individual and team championships in sports sanctioned by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, Lafayette has won 39 state titles.

An important, athletics-related expansion of Lafayette's physical plant was the construction in 1953 of a 1,000- seat (later expanded to 4,%O-seat) stadium. Originally called Lafayette Stadium, it was renamed James D. Ishmael Stadium in 1976, honoring the school’s third principal and first football coach. Besides serving the football, tuck, and soccer teams, this facility has been used in recent years by the regional Special Olympics and as the site of the well-received outdoor graduation ceremonies that were begun in 1985.

The curriculum taught at Lafayette has, over the years, undergone a number of significant changes. The vocational education program was transferred to the Northside and Southside Vocational Schools when they opened in 1978 and 1980. Some courses that were once familiar and popular, such as driver education, are no longer offered. But many new courses have appeared, including computer science, German, Russian, world civilization, criminal justice, and microbiology. Special education has become a part of the Lafayette curriculum, as have dual credit classes, which allow students to gain college credit for work done in high school

For a time Lafayette's curriculum-like those of other Fayette County high schools-was reorganized under the phase elective concept, which allowed a much greater degree of student choice and flexibility. Opinions differ as to how successful this was, or whether it was a good idea at all. But now the pendulum has swung back toward a more structured, traditional curriculum.

                A significant factor making for stability and institutional continuity at Lafayette is that the school has had only six principals in its 50-year history. The first principal, Dr. A.B. Crawford, served until 1945. He was succeeded by Dr. H. L Davis (1945-62), James D. Ishmael (1962-65), J. Lloyd Smith (1965-72), Dwight L. Price (1972-87), and the current principal, Thurmas Reynolds. These men have carried the weight of primary responsibility for the administration of Lafayette. Individually and collectively, they have been successful in preserving and enhancing its standing as a quality high school.

                The heart of any educational institution is, of course, its faculty. There is not enough space here to name all the faculty members who have made substantial and valuable contributions to the school. But no history of Lafayette, even a brief one, could be a true history without mention of at least some of those who have given conspicuously able and devoted service.

Thelma Beeler is the only teacher for whom a major part of the building is named. In recognition of her achievements in teaching speech and drama, the auditorium was named in her honor in 1977. She retired in 1974, after 29 years of service, at age 70. But her career at Lafayette did not stop; it only entered a new phase- She immediately signed on as a substitute teacher and has continued in that capacity at Lafayette ever since.

Sallie Adams Robinson, a much-admired Latin teacher, was the longest-serving member of the original faculty. She taught at Lafayette for 43 years, from the school’s opening day until her retirement in 1982. A remarkable fact about her long tenure is that, in all that time, she never took a sick day. Nor, according to colleague Samuel Fife, "was she ever late unlocking Room 202.”

                Lafayette has, of course, had many faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to the school. Music teacher Grace Dean, French teacher Margaret Rowbotham, business tear-hers Elizabeth Dennis and Doraleen Smith Bailey, registrar Besse Barker, mathematics teachers Edna Baucom, Jamie Long, Clarice Ramey, Visalia Champ, Lydia Fischer, Viola Greene and Carrie Jackson, dean of boys (later assistant principal) Jack Lawson, librarians Ruby Trower and Joan Albaugh, 9th grade core teacher Sue Adams, English teachers Hazel Chrisman, Rosalind Smith, Donn Hollingsworth, Eloise Dietz, Margaret Heaton, Cluisty Beard, Carol Voss, Denny Bonner and Mickey Settle, English and French teacher Frankie Taylor Harvener, vocational agriculture teacher J. P. Truitt, science teachers Forrest Mercer, Cynthia Gladden, Ken Caudill, Bill Barkley and Jim Gentry, physical education teacher Grace Fragstein, counselors Lily Stephens, Atha Dickenson and Pat Cook, counselor and business teacher Betty Newby, home economics teachers Ruth Averitt and Mabel Williamson, band directors William Walter Hall, Leslie Anderson and J. Larry Moore, SAFE program coordinator 7-un Carson, history teachers Henry Grehan and Gerald Kays, and Spanish teacher Marcia Miller (Kentucky's Teacher of the Year in 1977) are some of the faculty members who have mattered most in making Lafayette the kind of school it has been during its first 50 years.

One of the most valuable and admired persons ever associated with Lafayette was its longtime campus foreman, John Colliver. His service to the school began at the beginning. He worked for a time for the contractor that built the original building; and when the first teachers reported to work on opening day, he was on hand as head custodian to unlock the doors for them. His exceptional ability, diligence, good nature, and unfailing helpfulness made him a unique asset to the school. By the time he retired in 1980, he had come to be widely viewed as “Mr. Lafayette.”

In its 50 years, Lafayette has graduated approximately 19,500 students. The first graduating class, in 1940, had 156 members. Except for the war years, when numbers generally were down, the size of the graduating classes increased at a fairly steady pace through the forties and fifties. In 1959, its 20th anniversary year, Lafayette graduated 345. In the mid-sixties the number of graduates shot upward, exceeding 500 for the first time in 1964. Since then there have been more than 500 graduates in every year except four. The largest graduating class, in 1974, had 593 members.

Lafayette has many alumni who have distinguished themselves in their lives beyond high school Of these, 20 were named as the first members of the Lafayette Hall of Fame, established during the 50th anniversary celebration. These men and women were honored as individuals. But they also can be seen as a group whose wide range of achievement--in business, government, medicine, law, science, the arts, athletics, and civic affairs--is symbolic of the diverse and outstanding accomplishments of a much larger number of Lafayette alumni.

                The first 20 members of the Lafayette Hall of Fame are: former Kentucky governor and businessman John Y. Brown, Jr., University of Virginia medical school dean Robert Carey, architect Byron Romanowitz, endocrinologist John Baxter, actors Harry Dean Stanton and Jim Varney, sports broadcaster Tom Hammond, clinical psychologist and author Juanita Hingst Williams, chemistry professor Robert Vandenbosch, Navy Rear Admiral William Pendley, engineer and transportation research executive Thomas Deen, Fayette County circuit court judge Rebecca Overstreet, San Francisco municipal court judge Lee Davidson Baxter, basketball All-American and coach Jeff Mullins, biophysics professor Roger Cooke, biology professor Madison Pryor, television talk show host and civic leader Marilyn K. Moosnick, pro golfer Gay Brewer, Jr., artist Gene Cray, and surgeon Robert Hardin.

 For half a century, Lafayette High School has been one of Fayette County's most valuable institutions. During that time, the school has grown and changed in many ways. Yet continuity has been one of the strongest themes of its existence. Part of the reason for this is that Lafayette has evolved without being uprooted.

                The wave of change that has swept over Fayette County in the last few decades has included the closing, or moving to new sites, of most other local high schools. Lafayette, however, still occupies its original building. Members of all its classes--from graduates who are nearing 70 to current students in their teens-have been taught in the same classrooms, met in the same auditorium, and walked the same hallways as were in use on the school’s first day. This is a basic tie that links the Lafayette of past and present- It is a key element of continuity in the school's multi-famed story of change and growth.

Lafayette is a school with an especially strong sense of pride and tradition. No doubt this has much to do with the fact that it has been such a successful institution. From the beginning it has been one of Kentucky's leading high schools, with a favorable reputation in those circles where it is known outside the state. In five decades, it has accumulated a long record of impressive accomplishment and service to society.

What the future will bring no one can know. But it is possible to imagine and hope that the members of the Class of '89 can return in 2039--when they will be about the same age as Lafayette's first graduates are today--and find a still-flourishing high school whose second 50 years give as much cause for satisfaction and celebration as its first 50 have.