Scott Hall was named for W. Kerr Scott, governor of North Carolina. It was completed in 1951 at a cost of nearly $2,000,000, the largest sum ever appropriated to the university. The red brick structure housed 1,100 male students and included 505 rooms and 3 apartments for faculty supervisors.

Scott Hall was built to relieve the shortage of housing for male students. At that time there were 2300 male students at A&T. One thousand of the young men were living in dormitories and another thousand were living in the Overseas Replacement Depot (ORD) barracks. The ORD barracks had housed the men since World War II. The ORD was home to many thousands of G.I.s for some interval during World War II as well as home to veterans returning from the war.

In May 1969, the National Guard rolled onto A&T’s campus and sprayed one side of Scott Hall with bullets that left Willie Grimes, a student dead and two students wounded. The damaged wall with the bullet holes of Scott Hall have been preserved as a memorial so future students will know what happened. The window and frame of Room 2128 have been salvaged and placed in the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro. This is where Ezell Blair, Jr. (Jibreel Khazan) and Joe McNeil two of the A&T Four lived. Franklin McCain and the late David Richmond regularly met in Room 2128 with McNeil and Blair to sometimes do homework and to always discuss issues about equality and civil rights. In this room on January 31, 1960, plans were finalized for the historic sit-in demonstration that took place on February 1, 1960 at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC.

Scott Hall residents have included the A&T Four, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Henry Frye, A&T and NFL great Elvin Bethea, civil rights activist, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and entrepreneur Ralph Shelton.

Scott Hall was dedicated at the June 1952 commencement program. Dr. F.D. Bluford was president of the university, H.L. Coble Construction Company, contractor and McMinn and Norfleet, architects. It was razed on Sunday , July 11, 2004.