The school is located in Dayton, Ohio, and serves approximately 550 students.

The school is named after poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Dayton native.

It was created to educate African-American youth and to employ teachers of color.

The school originally opened on Summit Street in 1933 and graduated its first class in 1936.

In 1962 a new Dunbar high school was opened and the original building was renamed MacFarlane Elementary after Paul Laurence Dunbar's first principal, Mr. Frederic Charles MacFarlane.