The beams with a circular hole are often used for constructing structures. The center of the circular hole is normally located in neutral axis and the stress state around the hole due to bending moment is trivial. But the stress level around the hole due to shear force is expected to be significant especially in the case of beams made of shape steels. In this paper, the stress distributions around the circular hole of beams were presented. Using polar coordinates and generallized stress function, the formulas of stress components were derived. The aspects of plastic area propagations based on von Mises yield criteria were also shown graphically. In order to verify the formulas presented in this paper, a beam of I-shape steel with a circular hole was made and the strains around the hole were measured under various loading conditions. The experimental results were proved to coincide fairly well with the calculated values.