
(Photo by Evan Bevins)
The remaining framework of the previous Sumner College is found Thursday on Avery Avenue in Parkersburg. A feasibility research has been commissioned to help establish what can be accomplished with the internet site of the very first totally free school for African People in america south of the Mason-Dixon line.

PARKERSBURG — A feasibility analyze is underway to determine what could arrive next for the former Sumner Faculty and Sumnerite Museum.
The Avery Road property was the web site of the very first absolutely free university for African People south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
The previous gymnasium, which still stands, served as a museum, tutoring center and community collecting place for decades.
But it has not been open up consistently for virtually a 10 years right after robbers broke in and stole roughly $17,000 worth of copper pipes and fittings.
The roof is in need of substantial fix, and the building faces other problems ahead of it can be utilised all over again.
Parkersburg Significant Faculty alumni Tom and Ann Northrup, now residing in Virginia, discovered about the building’s struggles and reached out to previous classmate Toni Oliver, president of the Sumnerite Affiliation, to enable.
“I just felt like it is actually essential for Parkersburg,” claimed Tom Northrup, who was the longtime headmaster at a Virginia college and has knowledge with nonprofits and fundraising. “Sumner College has a excellent legacy.”
The Northrups volunteered to increase the resources for a feasibility research of the construction.
“Before anything can even occur, you have to have an plan of what is probable,” Tom Northrup stated.
He wrote to Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce to request the town add fifty percent of the $20,000 cost of the review. Parkersburg Metropolis Council permitted the allocation of $10,000 from the Enhancement Department’s contractual providers line merchandise previous 7 days.
“I was pleased to guidance the appropriation, and I’m hopeful this effort and hard work to revitalize or repurpose the Sumner Faculty location will shift ahead with an end final result that presents an suitable honor to the Sumnerites and their history right here in Parkersburg,” Joyce stated.
Northrup expects the feasibility study to be concluded by the conclusion of June. But some preliminary results will be presented this weekend at a non-public occasion for regional officials, company leaders and members of the Sumnerite Affiliation.
“Then it arrives down to the will of the leaders in Parkersburg and the leaders of the Sumnerite Association” to make one thing happen, Northrup claimed. “It won’t just sit there decaying as it has been.”
Evan Bevins can be attained at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.