Lafayette High School (Alabama)

LaFayette, Alabama
City
A statue honoring boxing legend and native citizen, Joe Louis, stands in Chambers County Courthouse Square in LaFayette.
Location of La Fayette in Chambers County, Alabama.
Coordinates: 32°53′54″N 85°24′2″W / 32.89833°N 85.40056°W / 32.89833; -85.40056
Country	United States
State	Alabama
County	Chambers
Incorporated	January 7, 1835
Named for	Marquis de Lafayette
Government
• Mayor	Barry Moody
Area
• Total	8.88 sq mi (23.01 km2)
• Land	8.86 sq mi (22.94 km2)
• Water	0.03 sq mi (0.07 km2)
Elevation	843 ft (257 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	3,003
• Estimate (2016)	2,968
• Density	334.05/sq mi (128.98/km2)
Time zone	CST (UTC−6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC−5)
ZIP code	36862
Area code	334
FIPS code	01-40672
GNIS feature ID	0164071
Website	www.lafayetteal.com

LaFayette (/ləˈfeɪ.ɛt/ lə-FAY-et, /ləˈfaɪ.ɛt/ lə-FYE-et, or /ˈlʌfeɪ.ɛt/ LUF-ay-et) is the county seat of Chambers County, Alabama, United States, 47 miles (76 km) northwest of Columbus, Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 3,003.

Chambers County was formed in 1832. The newly elected county officials opted to locate the county seat as near as possible to the center of the county. Lots for the new town were auctioned in October 1833, with proceeds from the sale financing the construction of a courthouse and jail. The town was first called "Chambersville", but by the time of incorporation on January 7, 1835, the town name had been changed to "Lafayette", named after the Marquis de Lafayette; its spelling was changed to "LaFayette" due to the influence of newspaper editor Johnson J. Hooper, who created a fictional character called Captain Simon Suggs, a backwoods southerner who pronounced the town's name as "La Fait". The city's newspaper, The LaFayette Sun, was founded under the name The Alabama Standard in April 1841 and adopted its current name on August 3, 1881.