A fire that broke out early Sunday morning destroyed a building on at the former Élan School property in Poland, a controversial boarding school for troubled youths.

The Poland Fire Department responded to the scene around 5 a.m. Sunday, Lt. Patrick Summers said.

The fire damaged one building and some of the woods on the property, Summers said. Fire crews put out the fire and cleared the scene.

The Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause.

Psychiatrist Gerald Davidson and Joseph Ricci, a former heroin addict, opened the Élan School, a private, for-profit boarding facility, in 1970. It closed in 2011, citing a lack of enrollment and financial difficulties.

Former students have alleged that staff subjected them to physical and emotional abuse at the school, including screaming confrontations, physical punishments and forced fighting.

Maine State Police opened an investigation in 2016 into the 1982 death of 15-year-old Élan student Phil Williams Jr., who witnesses said died after being forced to participate in a boxing match with other students. No charges were filed as a result of the investigation.

The Élan School gained notoriety during the 2002 murder trial and conviction of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, who attended the school as a teenager. Skakel’s classmates testified during the trial that he had confessed to killing his neighbor Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned Skakel’s conviction in 2018, saying his defense failed to present his alibi. He had served more than 11 years in prison.