DALLAS TOWNSHIP -- Plenty of memories today as heavy machinery moved in to tear down an old school in Luzerne County. It's the school with that cupola we showed you last night. Even though the cupola will be saved, it was sad for former students to see the rest of school come down.
At the demolition site of one of the oldest buildings in Dallas Township, you'll find plenty of excavators. But you'll also see people looking on tearfully at the building that once held so many memories for them.
"I'm very upset. I was crying because I don't think it should have been ripped down. Really, I don't. I think it should have just, should have found something else to do with it," said Lois Watkins, of Edwardsville.
Lois Watkins, of Edwardsville, was a student here at the former Dallas Township School in the 1950s.
But problems with pipes and the roof forced the district to close the building in 1984.
"It was slightly traumatic for the kids."
Edward Podehl remembers when it closed. His children were some of the students who moved to a new building.
"I'm sorry to see a building that looks like this have to be taken down. It's a beautiful, or it was, a beautiful building," said Edward Podehl, of Dallas Township.
It's been 30 years since this building was used for classroom space and former students are still coming back to pick up bricks as mementos for the time they spent here.
"It was part of my life that I wanted to remember and so I wanted to see it until the end," said Watkins.
A cupola from the 1920s was salvaged from the building. The district plans to make it a monument on the district campus. But so far, there are no plans for this space.
"It's too bad they didn't try to do something with it."
Demolition is expected to be complete by the end of the week.