Academic Building Three was built as the second gymnasium for men, replacing a temporary fame building that served as the first men's gym.
The 1956 Alcalde notes the $600,000, three-story structure has a seating capacity for 3,000 and "two regulation basketball courts, six handball courts, two boxing arenas, athletic classrooms and offices, and living quarters for the scholarship athletes [1]."
Following the construction of the Health-Kinesiology Center and the consolidation of the offices and classrooms found in both the men's and women's gymnasiums, the 1984 Alcalde said this building was slated for demolition [2]. Instead, AB3 went on to house other program areas including Dance, Military Science, and the Office of Graduate Studies.
Administrative offices, classrooms, and supply rooms for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) have been located on the second and third floors of AB3 since 1986.
Twenty years later, a Campus Master Plan update in September 2004 speculated the building would be demolished before the end of the decade [3]. The Fall 2009 edition of the SHSU Heritage magazine further confirmed its eventual demolition as part of the 2008 Campus Master Plan [4].
It was announced in 2010 that the newly-formed Department of Nursing would occupy AB3 until the new Nursing/Biological Sciences Building is constructed [5].
