Template:Wp-La Fayette, Illinois

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La Fayette (named after Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, pronounced locally "Lay - fay - et") is a village in Stark County, Illinois. It is located south of Kewanee off Route 78 on Route 17|IL-17 (Madison Street). The population was 223 at the 2010 census, down from 227 in 2000. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. 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 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.