KTKA

Aaron Edwards attended Sumner Elementary as a child.

"It turned my stomach when I saw how bad it had deteriorated in the past year," he says.

Edwards is very upset after getting a look at what has happened to his beloved childhood school. This comes at a time when the National Trust for Historical Preservation has put Sumner School on its list of endangered historic places. The announcement came on its front steps by Amy Cole with the Trust.

"Sumner was selected for this list because of the national significance, its deteriorated condition and the absence of a rehabilitation plan," she says.

The deterioration of the building has been an issue in the past. After a tour in December of 2006, the State Historical Preservation office sent the owners of the building, the City of Topeka, a letter asking them to fix the roof and keep it safe from the elements.

Since the building was shut down in the late 1990s, it has had many uses, one of which was storage. Another was tactical training, which is evident from all the shell casings on the floor.

Randy Speaker, the Deputy City Manager, says, "That has been discontinued once we found out that was taking place."

But more damage has been found.

"The bucket is full of water, so obviously you have a roof has not been repaired so it's causing significant damage to the wood floor," points out Edwards.

He says the buckling of this stage floor is also new. He and others hope they will be able to save the building and avoid demolition.

Monique Pittman Loui took the tour of Sumner.

She says, "Not to recognize it as the impact that it has had on the world would be sacrilege."