Athens’ most famous tin roof is not only rusted but recently became charred and burnt.

Located off Jefferson River Road in Clarke County, the shack rumored to be the actual “Love Shack” from the B-52s hit party song caught fire during the early morning hours of Dec. 13, 2004.

Kate Pierson, singer of the B-52s, lived in the shack from 1973 to 1979, gardening and raising goats.

“We practiced at the shack and wrote the song ‘Private Idaho’ there,” Pierson said. “Then it was our headquarters and office when we were going back and forth between Athens and New York.”

Athens-Clarke County Fire Inspector Reginald Hunter said the fire has been identified as arson.

“We have some leads,” he said, but added he was unable to elaborate as the case is still under investigation.

Hunter said some construction tools were originally reported stolen, but some of those items were later found inside the shack. He added the department isn’t sure right now if anything was actually stolen.

Atlanta residents Allisa and Rob Huestis purchased 80 acres of the dairy farm on which the shack was built with intentions of living in the shack while building their new house.

After selling their home, the Huestis’ renovated the shack with money that would have otherwise been used for rent. Now that the shack has burned down, taking their rent money with it, they are living with Allisa Huestis’ parents while they wait to hear from their insurer.

The shack had everything but electrical appliances, Allisa Huestis said, and now there’s nothing left except two outside walls.

When the land on the dairy farm recently went up for sale, before the Huestis bought it, Pierson was contacted about buying the shack and surrounding land.

There were telephone calls back and forth, but nothing ever came of it, said Pierson.

“The Love Shack is a mythical place,” Pierson said. “It’s not based on a specific place but rather a series of down-home, throw-down, disco juke joints that you would find in the rural south,” she said.

The shack on Jefferson Road was an inspiration for the song, though.

“Whenever I sing the lines ‘It’s set way back in the middle of a field/Just a funky old shack and I gotta get back,’ I’m thinking about the shack I lived in,” Pierson said.

The shack had no running water and Mack Elder, whose late mother-in-law owned the dairy farm and rented the shack to Pierson for $15 a month, said he used to see Pierson carrying water from a well in a wheelbarrow.

“I’d never really heard of the B-52s until about a year ago. I looked up the lyrics to the song Love Shack because I was curious to see if it really was this shack,” Elder said.

Mats Sexton, author of the book “The B-52s’ Universe” said another shack believed by many to be the actual “Love Shack” was located in upstate New York, where the band filmed the song’s music video.

This shack also burned down, but it was intentionally destroyed for safety reasons after it became dilapidated, Sexton said.

“I have wonderful memories of that house (in Athens). We used to play music out in the field and dance under the full moon with the cows all around us. It was beautiful,” Pierson said.

“The Love Shack isn’t gone,” she said. “It lives in our minds; a place where you can let your freak flag fly and let your beehive down.”