Construction on the building began in 1912. Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds James E. Robinson was the architect for the $150,000 project. It was ready for use in January 1914 and dedicated on February 10, 1914. At the dedication ceremony, D. D. Murphy, president of the State Board of Education, praised the new building and said that it ". . . symbolized proper teacher training . . . ." When it opened, the school had about 350 pupils, twenty-five teachers, and, over the course of the year, about five hundred student teachers.
This large building, called an "educational palace" in its day, was a significant step forward for the college. Its many rooms provided instructional facilities for classes ranging from kindergarten through high school. It included space for manual training, domestic science, physical training, and student teacher demonstration and observation. The auditorium, which held four hundred people, was decorated with a copy of a Lucca della Robia frieze, a gift of the Class of 1913. The new building housed a library of three thousand volumes as well as motion picture equipment, phonographs, and a player piano.
This four story structure was designed to be a model school building. It was a place where Teachers College students could receive instruction on proper teaching methods and then have opportunities to practice what they had learned in real classrooms under the observation of experienced teachers.
This building was initially known as the Training School, but by the late 1930s it was called the Campus School. Once work began on a new campus school in the early 1950s, the building was known briefly as the Old Campus School. On June 17, 1957, it was renamed Henry Sabin Hall.
Henry Sabin served as State Superintendent of Schools from 1888 through 1892 and 1894 through 1898. In that capacity, he also served as ex-officio president of the Iowa State Normal School Board of Directors for those same years. Henry Sabin worked closely with President Seerley to establish the certification of normal school graduates on the basis of training rather than examination, the permanent establishment of the campus training school, and the development of special curricula in teacher training. Henry Sabin was instrumental in securing funds for the buildings now known as Lang Hall, East Gymnasium, Physics Building, the President's House, Seerley Hall, Wright Hall, and the old Campus School itself. He was a strong supporter and friend of the school during its difficult early years.
The building served as a school and student teacher training facility for over forty years. But as early as the end of World War II, college officials were convinced that a new school and training building was necessary.
While the old building was still structurally sound, it could no longer serve as a model for modern school arrangement and management. Sufficient funding finally materialized in 1950 to begin work on the new facility that would become the Price Laboratory School. The elementary unit of the new school was completed on August 10, 1953, and the elementary students and teachers moved out of the Old Campus School. The high school students continued to use the old building until the secondary unit of the new building was completed in 1955.
After the last of the Laboratory School students moved out of the building in 1955, the Social Science Department moved into the third and part of the second floors, and part of the Science Department moved into the remaining area on the second floor. In 1956, after remodeling was completed, the Department of Business Education moved into the first and basement floors.
Sabin Hall has undergone several major remodeling projects that reflect its changing functions. One major project took place in the late 1940's and early 1950's. A second remodeling effort, with a budget of $424,000, replaced the entire heating and cooling system, added an elevator, upgraded electrical wiring, and made other repairs in 1968. A new conference room and ten new offices also resulted from this project.
To relieve congestion at Sabin Hall's northwest door, a second story walkway was completed between the Maucker Union and Sabin Hall.
The elevated walkway was removed during repairs and renovations to the Maucker Union roof and plaza in 1995. Its utility had been debatable, but at least it had been a good place to hang signs.
In 1969 the Studio Theatre in Sabin Hall was remodeled and opened with a producton of Blithe Spirit, under the direction of Professor Stanley Wood. Just ten years later, with the new Strayer-Wood Theatre available, the Regents approved a $120,000 project to convert the old Sabin Studio Theatre into space for the Department of Economics. The reconstruction work did not actually take place until 1983. In the middle 1980s the Sabin Hall roof received improvements. A summer 1994 project gave the building new windows and some new doors. In addition, the building was connected to the campus computer network at that time.
Currently, Sabin Hall houses offices and classrooms of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Departments of Political Science and Geography. The building is on the university's five year list of possible capital projects for a $9.3 million renovation.
In March 2008, the Board of Regents approved academic revenue bonding to begin the renovation of Sabin Hall. Architects and consultants are working on plans that are scheduled to go out for bid in the spring of 2009. The project will last about eighteen months. Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning Morris Mikkelsen stated that the renovation design will aim at energy conservation and sustainability in hopes that the the building will qualify under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System. Sabin Hall would be the first campus building to be certified under this system.
Compiled by Special Collections Library Assistant Susan Witthoft; edited by University Archivist Gerald L. Peterson, July 1996
Substantially revised by Gerald L. Peterson, with research assistance by Student Assistant Jen Carlson and scanning by Special Collections Library Assistant Gail Briddle, April 2004.