A historical house on South Milledge Avenue is haunted, and one graduate student and one local musician are hoping to resurrect its ghost. A decade ago, the house was occupied by Athens recording legend Tom Lewis, who has worked with the likes of Sonic Youth and R.E.M.

After Lewis moved out of the house, the studio went dormant. But Luke Johnson and Chris Byron are rebuilding the studio in the back of Lewis’s former home.

“We salvaged it. For a long time it was taken over by a bunch of frat dudes who didn’t even know what they had,” said Johnson, a Washington, D.C. native who plays the drums.

Despite the disarray left behind by the former tenants, Byron and Johnson have accepted the challenge of putting the studio back together.

What the studio currently lacks in equipment, it makes up for in sheer size. The studio boasts three rooms: a large room for rehearsing and recording, a smaller isolation room, and a control room.

Looking at the studio today, it is hard to imagine what it might have looked like in Lewis’ heyday. The steel blue walls, freshly covered sound insulation panels and MacBook make it easy to forget what this place once contained. An old Aerosonic piano topped with a globe is the only remnant of those times.

Considering the studio’s history, it would be easy to feel eclipsed by Lewis’ resume, but Byron and Johnson say they are up to the task.

Byron, an accomplished musician and recording engineer from Sautee-Nacoochee, Ga., has worked with the B-52s, Widespread Panic and the U.K.’s Star Sailor. Byron is no stranger to working in well-known spaces, as he engineered Star Sailor’s most recent record in Peter Gabriel’s studio.

The first project to come out of the revamped studio will be a group called The Premonitions. Two of the current members are tenants, including Maureen McGinnis, a classically trained vocalist who drove cross-country from Los Angeles to Athens in May.

“Having a recording studio in your home is a musician’s dream,” McGinnis said.

The Premonitions are “not ready to go full time, but that would be the eventual goal,” said Johnson, who also lives in the house. In the meantime, the up-and-coming act is hoping to put out a few recordings to gain interest from the Athens community.

Byron, the group’s keyboard player, says the vibe is “dark, hip and soulful.”

Johnson said he hopes the studio will be an inspiration that will “invigorate the already thriving Athens music scene.”

He said he is open to new or established acts working in the studio.