Scales House is one of the 10 houses of "the quad," which form a semicircle and enclose a small courtyard. This is also the site of the "diploma circle" where graduates distribute their diplomas during Commencement.
The complex was built in stages starting in 1922, to alleviate a housing shortage on campus. When all the houses were completed in 1936, William Allan Neilson, then president of Smith, pronounced it the "Great Quadrangle."
Scales and its sister house, King, were built in 1935 and 1936. Laura Scales was named after Laura Woolsey Lord Scales of the class of 1901. Scales was Smith's first dean of students, a post that she held for 22 years.
