Lafayette High School, on Lexington’s Reed Lane, May 10, 1976. The school, which opened in 1939 two miles south of the city limits, was built on the grounds of an orphanage at a cost of $270,000. It had a student capacity of 1,000. Nazi Germany invaded Poland three days before the school registered its first students. In July 1940, a national defense trade school was set up at the school. Over the next several years, the campus was expanded to meet the war needs as students of the vocational programs went on to work in shipyards, munitions plants, aircraft factories and other war-related industries. Lafayette was the first Lexington school to be integrated, in 1955. In the upper right corner is the Fayette County school bus garage. Today it is on Liberty Road. The football field to its right has now been turned 90 degrees. In 1976 the school graduated 448 students. In 2017 it was 569. Click on the image for a closer look. Photo by John C. Wyatt | Staff