Before the Civil War, Langdon Hall served as the location for a series of debates on the question of Southern secession, involving William Lowndes Yancey, Alexander Stephens, Benjamin Harvey Hill, and Robert Toombs.

[2] Upon construction, the chapel held the largest auditorium in east Alabama, and as such served as the regional center for lectures and political debates.

Toombs followed, supporting the states' rights position, but the anti-secession arguments of Brownlow seemed to win the debate for the pro-Union side.

As the debate prepared to wrap up in the early evening, Yancey finally arrived, extemporaneously speaking for an hour and a half on the arguments for secession.

Yancey's oratory proved sufficient to carry the day for the secessionists, and the country moved one step closer to Civil War.

[9] The reconstructed Langdon Hall now had woodworking and mechanical engineering laboratories in the old chemistry lab; a dynamo built there allowed the auditorium above to be lit with electric lights in 1888.