The rezoning request was denied and the home was bought by several preservation-minded locals who secured it until the State of Tennessee/Tennessee Historical Commission could purchase the museum-quality property.

[2] Brigadier General Nathaniel Taylor began building Sabine Hill between 1814 and 1816, after returning home to Elizabethton following the War of 1812.

[3][4][5] Taylor had been one of the earliest settlers in Elizabethton, having arrived as a boy around 1780 when his family migrated from Rockbridge County, Virginia to the settlement along the Watauga River.

[3][8] He selected a site on a hill with a commanding view of the Happy Valley area of western Carter County.

Originally the house had a split-shingle roof, which had been replaced by galvanized iron as of 1936, when Sabine Hill was visited for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).

Noteworthy features mentioned included "delicate and almost elaborately carved" fireplace mantels and chamfered joints in the wood paneling on the walls.

[4] In its early decades, Sabine Hill served as both the home of the Taylor family and the headquarters of a large estate that was tended by slaves.

[5] In 1892, a journalist who visited Sabine Hill found the house vacant and in a state of deterioration, although much of its decor and furnishings were intact.

[5] In 1947 a member of the Taylor family sold the property to the Sabine Hill Realty Company with an instruction that "the old house located on this tract must either be razed or remodeled."

They were unable to achieve their goals, and the property was optioned to a developer who wanted to demolish the house and build condominiums on the 4.8-acre (1.9 ha) site.

[5][12] Sabine Hill was saved from demolition by a group of locals who bought it and held it until it could be purchased by the Tennessee Historical Commission in 2007.