LIVERMORE FALLS — Sweat rolled down Dana Cummings’ face Thursday as he pushed a wheelbarrow across pavement at the former Primary Learning Center, once the town’s high school.

Cummings, 46, is working on revitalizing the massive brick building where he attended elementary school from 1975-79. The school, built in 1900, has been vacant for a while. Its days as a school ended at the turn of the century, and it has gone through several owners with only small sections being used at some points.

Cummings, who splits his time between California and Livermore Falls, bought the building at 20 Baldwin St. He is a co-founder of AmpSurf — Association of Amputee Surfers — and a former veterans service officer in California.

“I basically sank my retirement into this,” he said. “I just wanted to save this thing. I went to school here. My father went to school here. My grandfather went to school here. My brothers and sisters went to school here.”

Cummings, the youngest of Livermore Falls Selectman George Cummings’ seven children, has lots of ideas about what could go in the more than 15,000-square-foot building.

“Some of the best memories of my childhood are here,” he said.

He remembers the last names of teachers and what classrooms they were in. In those days, students did not know or call their teachers by their first names, he said.

Most rooms are 900 to 1,000 square feet and have bathrooms in them.

“Everybody wants to know what I am going to do with it,” he said. “I’d love to see kids running around here again.”

He would like to create something for kids there, possibly a day care center or preschool. People have suggested a center for older people and businesses.

Cummings is hosting a free barbecue for the first 200 people who attend from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, at the building. The community event will be highlighted by music and a tour of the building. He wants to show people what has been done and what needs to be done.

The event’s an initiative to allow members of the community to share memories, give ideas and be involved in the revitalization of the building.

Those interested in being involved can contact Cummings through his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DCummings0318.

Cummings and helpers have cleaned out trash and unwanted items from the building.

Remnants linger of what each room looked like when the structure was a school, including clocks and chalkboards. In one room on the ground level, some of the names of children who last attended the school are taped above coat hooks.

Cummings plans to scrape back some paint to show the original plaster behind it. A ceiling tile out of a grid in a room on the second floor reveals a brick exterior of the original school building before an addition was made.

The original school had 8- to 12-inch brick sides compared to 2 inches of brick with cinder blocks behind it on the addition, he said.

He is hoping to start a nonprofit and to have the building recognized as historical.

“I want this to be a functioning part of the community,” he said. “I’m hoping to create some jobs.”

Among the history in the building is a 1920s sprinkler system in the basement and a built-in large vault or strongroom.

Cummings has started to repoint bricks and has marked those that need to be renewed due to age and weathering.

“It will probably take a couple years to get everything functioning,” Cummings said.

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