NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) — Restoration work has begun on the 140-year-old Missouri schoolhouse attended by George Washington Carver, one of the 20th century’s most important scientists.

The small, run-down house in Neosho was built in 1872 and is now one of the oldest surviving schoolhouses built for African-American students in Missouri.

HistoriCorps, a nonprofit organization that puts students and volunteers to work saving historic places, started work recently to restore the school to its 1872 appearance.

The schoolhouse is owned by the nonprofit Carver Birthplace Association. It was the first school attended by Carver, who was born near Diamond and later taught people how to make peanut butter and rotate crops.

The association hopes the exterior restoration will get the schoolhouse on the National Register of Historic Places.