By summer, three of the University of Vermont’s best-known residence halls will be gone, but until then the thousands of students who lived in Chittenden, Buckham and Wills have the opportunity to remember the best stories – and if they want, salvage a brick or two.

“The Shoeboxes” — loved, loathed and never forgotten — will be razed after graduation this spring to make way for a larger, more modern residence hall and an expansion at the neighboring University of Vermont Medical Center. Built in 1947 on UVM’s Central Campus, the rectangular and modest Shoeboxes have inspired a special loyalty among generations of Vermont graduates. From midnight snowball fights to lifelong friendships, the residence halls have remained a foundation of the UVM experience for many students.

“I was there when the Beatles came to America,’’ one graduate, Jeffrey Kent, wrote on Twitter on Monday about Buckham Hall, “and when Kennedy was shot.”

The UVM Alumni Association is asking former residents to share their favorite CBW memories. For $50, which includes the cost of shipping and a $25 donation to the UVM Scholarship Fund, the association will provide an authentic brick salvaged from the Shoeboxes.

“It is hard to believe that it has been 66 years since this awed freshman arrived on campus and, complete with mandatory green beanie on my head, sought to find this new home called Wills Hall,’’ said James W. Francis, Jr. ’52. “As a CBW alum of one of ‘The Shoeboxes,’ and with much nostalgia and a little sadness, I hereby grant UVM my permission to demolish our beloved Wills Hall, but certainly not my untold fond memories!”

Authentic CBW bricks can be purchased, and Shoebox memories will be collected online at alumni.uvm.edu/shoeboxes/.