La Fayette (named after Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, pronounced locally "Lay - fay - et") is a village in Stark County, Illinois.

Once a prominent strip coal mine and farming village with; a general store, high school(until 1970), hotel, bank, grain elevator, train depot, and many other features and amenities.

Once the coal mines shut down and railroad was removed in the early 1980s, it slowly became a low income and high poverty village with many people moving away and it eventually diminished to the hollow shell of what it once was.

[2] According to the 2010 census, La Fayette has a total area of 0.19 square miles (0.49 km2), all land.

24.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.