City boards up historic Sauer Castle in KCK

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    KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV/KSMO ) — Boards now cover the windows of one of KCK’s historic landmarks.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas has now deemed the Sauer Castle unsafe.

The mansion, placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1977, was built by a German immigrant in 1870.

Carl Lopp owns it now.

“I bought the castle in 1988. It was built by my great-great grandfather in 1870. My great grandmother, my grandmother and my mother all grew up there,” Lopp said.

Lopp was shocked to wake up to about 15 police cars surrounding the property as crews came to board up the many broken windows of the mansion.

“This came completely out of the blue,” Lopp said.

A judge issued a warrant Dec. 10, days ago, allowing for the “boarding and securing” of the property due to violations of city ordinances.

A spokesperson for the Unified Government said “this action was taken after multiple request to secure the property went unanswered by the owner.”

Lopp owes $15,402 in taxes for the lot the castle sits on, $14,260 for the lot next to it, and $21,950 in special assessments and citations. He’s on his fourth payment plan to the Unified Government.

Looking at the mansion from the sidewalk on Shawnee Road, it’s easy to tell the mansion is from far livable.

Lopp says he’s slowly been trying to restore the property.

“It is outrageous with the city is doing. They’re damaging this national historic landmark,” he said. “In their boarding process, the original wood is being destroyed by them. It’s shameful.”

Thousands of people in a Facebook group dedicated to the restoration of the Sauer Castle believe the real shame is Lopp’s failure to keep up the property.

“Three more years, it’ll be on the ground,” former property owner Bud Wyman said.

Wyman owned the property for a few years prior to Lopp purchasing it.

“We had weddings, seven weddings. And tours. I have a book this big full of people who toured it,” Wyman said.

Wyman wanted to make a bed and breakfast of it, but the city didn’t allow it.

He says when it was his, it was still beautiful.

“The original wallpaper was still on the wall. Nobody had ever messed with it,” he said.

Now, the mansion looks like something out of a horror film.

“I guarantee you, it was haunted,” Wyman said.

Wyman says he heard noises that sounded like children playing in the tower of the mansion, where there used to be a school room.

Neighbors in the area say vandals have broken in over the years to steal antique pieces inside the mansion, but also likely to experience some of the supernatural activity Wyman says is frequent.

“My German Shepherd would not go in that master bedroom. Five people died in that room,” Wyman said.

Wyman is among the many people in Wyandotte County who had hopes Lopp would restore the Sauer Castle back to it’s former glory. It pains him to see the boards going up.

He hopes the history can still be preserved and not forgotten.

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