Harlan Elementary School is located in the Norwood Park Subdivision of Florence, Alabama, and encompasses kindergarten through grade 4. It was named in honor of a prominent businessman, Sam C. Harlan, who was Chairman of the Board of Education during the period of the Great Depression. Mr. Harlan prevented the Florence City School System from closing by personally signing a bank note backing money borrowed by the Board of Education to keep the schools open when the state ran out of school funds.

Harlan Elementary School was opened in September 1955. The single-storied, L-shaped, red, brick building was surrounded by 18.9 acres of attractive grounds. It contained 14 classrooms, a library, a cafeteria, and an auditorium and was staffed by a faculty of 13 teachers and a principal and a half-time assistant principal. Its enrollment of 420 consisted primarily of students living in the surrounding neighborhood.