Battle Hall
Built in 1912 as a dormitory, Battle Hall was one of the three buildings on the northwest corner of McCorkle Place on Franklin Street (Vance and Pettigrew Halls are attached). Converted to office space in the late 1960s, Battle Hall housed the university's personnel department for many years. It is one of only a few examples of a building named for a living person. Kemp Plummer Battle, who served as university president from 1876 to 1891, was still on the faculty when the building opened. An 1849 graduate of Carolina, Battle was active in the campaign to reopen the university in 1875. After he left the college presidency he was appointed Alumni Professor of History, a position he held until his death in 1919. Battle helped begin graduate study in history at UNC and worked to build the library's collections of historic artifacts and manuscripts. His two-volume History of the University of North Carolina (1907—12) is still considered an essential source for understanding the early history of the university.
Date Established: 1912
Date Range: 1912 – Present
Battle-Vance-Pettigrew building, ca. 1920s. Battle Hall is on the right. UNC Image Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.