diff --git a/Doc/tools/extensions/escape4chm.py b/Doc/tools/extensions/escape4chm.py
index e9999716251734..68d4e77a37163d 100644
--- a/Doc/tools/extensions/escape4chm.py
+++ b/Doc/tools/extensions/escape4chm.py
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@
 import re
 from html.entities import codepoint2name
 
-from sphinx.util.logging import getLogger
+try:  # sphinx>=1.6
+    from sphinx.util.logging import getLogger
+except ImportError:  # sphinx<1.6
+    from logging import getLogger
 
 # escape the characters which codepoint > 0x7F
 def _process(string):
diff --git a/Doc/tools/extensions/pyspecific.py b/Doc/tools/extensions/pyspecific.py
index dec7f0c779ab06..70bdd1754240e7 100644
--- a/Doc/tools/extensions/pyspecific.py
+++ b/Doc/tools/extensions/pyspecific.py
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 from sphinx import addnodes
 from sphinx.builders import Builder
 from sphinx.locale import translators
-from sphinx.util import status_iterator
 from sphinx.util.nodes import split_explicit_title
 from sphinx.writers.html import HTMLTranslator
 from sphinx.writers.text import TextWriter, TextTranslator
@@ -314,6 +313,11 @@ def get_target_uri(self, docname, typ=None):
         return ''  # no URIs
 
     def write(self, *ignored):
+        try:  # sphinx>=1.6
+            from sphinx.util import status_iterator
+        except ImportError:  # sphinx<1.6
+            status_iterator = self.status_iterator
+
         writer = TextWriter(self)
         for label in status_iterator(pydoc_topic_labels,
                                      'building topics... ',
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2018-12-30-09-56-13.bpo-35605.gAWt32.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2018-12-30-09-56-13.bpo-35605.gAWt32.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..cbc0f1e07f3124
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2018-12-30-09-56-13.bpo-35605.gAWt32.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix documentation build for sphinx<1.6.  Patch by Anthony Sottile.