Union Army chaplain Henry Martin Tupper came to Raleigh in 1865, shortly after the Civil War to educate and minister to previously enslaved African-Americans—the freedmen.
Tupper erected a two-story frame building on South Blount Street and named his school Tupper’s Raleigh Theological Institute. By 1870 the school had outgrown its building. A donation from Massachusetts benefactor Elijah Shaw enabled Tupper to purchase the Barringer family estate on South Street, near the old Governor’s Palace. To recognize Shaw’s support, Tupper renamed his school Shaw Collegiate Institute in 1872. It was chartered by the state as Shaw University in 1875.
Construction of a four-story brick building on the Barringer property began in 1870. Upon completion of its west wing in 1872, the structure was named Shaw Hall in honor of Elijah Shaw.
Historians believe that Raleigh architect George S.H. Appleget designed Shaw Hall. Appleget also designed Shaw University’s Estey Hall in the Italianate style (1874).
After nearly a century of service, Shaw Hall became unstable and was demolished in the late 1960s. The James E. Cheek Library, a Brutalist style structure, was built on the site in 1968.