If you don’t remember it, you must have heard about it.

June 19, 2009, early morning, smoke billowing upward from the corner of Jackson and Clayton.

The Georgia Theatre, a temple in the Athens music Mecca for the better part of the last 100 years, was burning.

The Georgia Theatre has hosted music icons, such as Dave Matthews Band, Beck and R.E.M. PHOTO BY EMILY KAROL

“I tried to run in the building. The fire marshall had to tackle me. I thought I could put it out somehow,” said Wilmot Greene, owner of the 121-year-old building since 2004.

After being turned away from the doors, he stood on the corner in front of the Bank of America building and watched, helpless.

Backtrack to the summer of 2004. Athfest time has come, the yearly week-long celebration of all things Athenian: beautiful art, loud music and a lot of beer.

Wilmot Greene is back in Athens for the weekend, on vacation from his residence in Charlotte, N.C., where he works as a cartographer.

He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University a few years before, and grew up just down the road from here in Gainesville.

He’d played in bands in college — The Northern Lights and Ashtray, among others — and knew the owners of the Theatre at that time, Kyle Pilgrim and Duck Anderson, from playing shows there.

“I ran into one of the owners out front of the Theatre, and he asked what I was doin’, all that kinda stuff,” Greene said. “We caught up and I said, ‘You know man, you should sell me the Georgia Theatre, you’re too old to be doin’ this,’ and he said, ‘OK, let’s talk shop.’”

The idea had come up in the past, and Greene, now with some cash saved up and a huge desire to come back to the Classic City, decided it was time to make his move.

He went into their office that October and signed the papers.

“It was their baby, and they didn’t wanna sell it to just anybody,” Greene said.

That meant maintaining the tradition of the club in both its style and atmosphere.

“I didn’t wanna change anything, just put some love back into it,” he said.

What Greene loved and still loves about the Theatre is the distinction it maintains through its indistinctness.

It’s not a rock club or a jam club or even a hip-hop club. Outside it’s a beautiful building and inside it can be whatever Greene and concert-goers want it to be.

In its lifetime, the Georgia Theatre has showcased a variety of the best acts within practically every genre of popular music: Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., Method Man and Red Man, Beck, The Goo Goo Dolls, Bubba Sparxxx, David Allen Coe, The Butthole Surfers, P- Funk and The Wu-Tang Clan.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s jam or country or blues or indie, it doesn’t matter, that makes no difference to us,” Greene said. “What makes a difference to us is that people will want to come see the shows.”

Today, the Theatre is completely gutted. The music of construction resounds from inside occasionally, and the famous marquee is bereft of show dates.

“It’s a lot like a death of a family member,” Greene said of that fateful day over a year ago. “It’s such a weird feeling when you just walk up and see your baby burning… What do you do?”

What he did was break down.

Greene had just finished renovating the building in May of 2009, a month before the fire, five years after buying it.

Now his business was broke, with insurance only covering his costs to the bank, and he had no way to re-start any sort of revenue stream.

But then a plan emerged. Benefits were held, blueprints were drawn up and action was taken.

What’s in the works now is a new Georgia Theatre, built from the ground up but still held within its former skin.

“The opportunity that this tragedy has brought us is really neat, which is have a brand new interior in this 120 year old exterior,” Greene said. “No other venue that I know has that opportunity.”

Plans include a main room based on the old one, but fitted with better bars, a bigger stage and a balcony with its own large bar and more seating.

Bathrooms will be located in the basement, out of the way and with more of them.

And, in a totally new move for the Theatre, the roof will be converted into a patio. The patio will have its own bar, open every day and serving smoked foods prepared by Ken Manring, owner of White Tiger.

“I’m gonna do everything I can to make it have the same vibe, be as cool as it can in there, but I think about this all the time: If you were a senior, about to graduate, your senior year there was no Georgia Theatre, and that just sucks,” Greene said. “They just missed out. I feel like I owe them something. My senior year in college I was probably here four nights a week.”

The new mortgage payments will put Greene in a difficult situation monetarily, with monthly bills that will come close to three times the old ones.

So he works every day, going to meetings, overseeing construction, making orders, all so Athenians can once again frequent a venue that is whatever we want it to be.

“I just want it to get done. I want it to feel right. I just want it to be as close to the same as possible,” Greene said. “And I just want people to have fun.”