Remains of the Sweet School, built c. 1900, which a local group wanted to move (Alice Tratebus)

The new owner of a 107-year-old school in rural Wyoming tore it down last month to make way for his retirement house.

Residents who had won grants to move the Sweet School were angered by South Dakota doctor Brad Plaga's June 26 demolition. They said Plaga, who bought the 400-acre parcel in 2004, had given the group until September to move the two-story structure.

"The community is very much upset with the man," says Lucille Dumbrill, chair of the Weston County Historic Preservation Board. "My hope was that he would care enough about the community to help us."

Instead, Plaga bulldozed the school, burying it and all hope of turning it into a museum. Despite a meeting with the group on Apr. 12, he says he wasn't aware of its plan to save the building.

"We hadn't had any correspondence with them at all. I told them I wasn't going to wait for them forever," Plaga told the Casper Star-Tribune.

The building had been moved in the 1920s from its original site a mile away. It had been empty since the 1980s but was in decent condition, says the group, which secured a $3,500 grant in May from the state historic preservation office for an assessment of the building.

Want Today's News headlines delivered to your e-mail box? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter >>