Lloyd Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois on June 20, 1894. Hall's grandmother came to Illinois using the "Underground Railroad" at the age of sixteen. His grandfather came to Chicago in 1837 and was one of the founders of the Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church. He became the church's first pastor in 1841. Hall’s parents, Augustus and Isabel, both graduated high school. Although Lloyd was born in Elgin, his family moved to Aurora, Illinois. He graduated in 1912 from East Side High School in Aurora. After graduating school, he studied pharmaceutical chemistry at Northwestern University, earning a B.S. and a degreeat the University of Chicago. At Northwestern, Hall met Carroll L. Griffith, who with his father, Enoch L. Griffith, founded Griffith Laboratories. The Griffiths later hired Hall as their chief chemist.