Early English settlers, not knowing the Rhododendron's name, called it "laurel" after the shrubs they knew from England.

[citation needed] Late nineteenth-century census records show that 60 percent of the Laurel Fork population could read and write.

[citation needed] Around 1903 - 1904, the Laurel Fork Male and Female Academy was built, later becoming a high school.

[citation needed] In 1970, the church was encased in brick and now stands along Laurel Fork Road.

Constructed in 1911, this one-room schoolhouse is commonly believed to be the descendant of the first school in Laurel Fork, which had previously burned down.