ST. ALBANS, WV (WOWK) – As the St. Albans Junior High School building nears demolition, former students are taking a step back into the past.

“It just takes you back,” said Laura Shank, a former student. “And it brings back all your memories of all the good times we had there.”

Shank and her three older sisters attended the junior high school around the 1970s. Her mom and aunt also went there when the school was a high school over seven decades ago. 

“Many memories were made in those hallways, and it’s so wonderful to be able to lookback and see where I got to walk, and my mom got to walk and my sisters,” Shank said. “Those were the days.”

As she was looking through a box of memories, she came across a VHS tape from 1989, a year before the school closed down for good. The video was shot at Shank’s mom and aunt’s 40th class reunion.

WATCH: Clips of St. Albans Junior High on VHS tapes from Laura Shank

It takes you through the classrooms, the auditorium and the gym: a place that former students said was always crowded during basketball games.

“The thing that will stick out is just how loud that was and how much energy was put out,” said Ron Hughes, a former student. “I don’t remember us ever losing a game that I went to in that gym.”

For Hughes, the memories go far beyond basketball games. The school also happens to be the place where he met his wife Barbara Hughes who was named homecoming queen in 1973.

Even though Hughes and Shank continue to hold onto those memories, they said it’s time the building comes down.

“It was amazing being able to see that again, when you see what shape the junior high is now,” Shank said. “It’s really sad that it’s going to be torn down, but we have great memories.”

With only a handful of students left from the class of 1949, she said the snapshots of time captured through the VHS tape will never be forgotten.