Riverbank Laboratories

Riverbank Laboratories is a small district on Batavia Avenue in Geneva, Illinois, once part of the roughly 300-acre Riverbank estate of Colonel George and Nelle Fabyan beside the Fox River. Its main elements are the Lodge and Studio, the Engineering Building and the Sabine Acoustical Laboratory. The Lodge is a two-and-a-half-story frame Craftsman bungalow with a steep gabled roof, a limestone foundation and a long enclosed south porch. The attached Studio, built by the Fabyans in 1917 as an administration building, has an English Arts and Crafts character. The district matters chiefly for the science done here. Paul Sabine directed research in architectural acoustics and helped standardize acoustical testing, and the laboratory became the official testing site for the Acoustical Materials Association. Bert Eisenhour led the tuning fork work, including a patented temperature-compensated fork in 1932. After the property was sold in 1999, the Lodge and Studio were rehabilitated as homes, while the acoustical laboratory remains in use.