When it first opened in 1939, The Mack Theater was a beloved Irvin destination for young and old alike.

Since closing its doors in 1993, the building had fallen into a state of disrepair.

But a local theater troupe known as the River City Players, is working to bring the beloved theater back to life.

More in our weekly Arts and culture segment.

Tapestry The Mac Theater is one of those iconic structures that we have in our community.

Irvin is known for its green bridge across the Kentucky River that lets out right here on Main Street in downtown.

And as soon as you come across that green bridge, the first thing you see is the marquee for the Mac.

We introduced ourselves to the public in July of 2013, and as I time envisioning purchasing and repairing and renovating the Mac for a live performance.

Primarily for us for a four theater.

And but also we realized that music is such a huge part of our community and actually the surrounding area.

We definitely wanted to look at bringing live music performance here to the community.

Economically, we very much want to see the Mac become a grounding for our Main Street corridor and of course, tourism.

We basically put our heads together, came up with the initial plan and here we are all these years later.

I like to say that phase one was make it clean.

And phase two is make it safe.

So right now we're in the make it safe.

Next will be make it functional and after that, make it pretty.

We have to celebrate how amazing the local folks in and around this county have been to see this project to where we are now.

They have given and given and given some more, even until it hurts.

Whether that be straight up donations or spending money on a hot dog fundraiser or what have you, they have they have stepped up to the plate time and time again to make it happen.

We're doing this because it's home and we want home to be the very best that it can be.

We don't want people in our community to have to drive to Richmond.

We don't want them to have to drive to Lexington.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But we want them to be able to be home, to have entertainment, to support each other, and to have a place for their children to be home and involved with with with culture.

And and and we have a rich history here in this county that we can share through different areas and performance here within within the Mac Theater.

It's just part of who we are.

So to be able to be part of the effort to restore something that we all know and we love so much, and even see it become more than it was, that the way we remember is just it's important.

The Mac is about to be back.

The River City Players hope to have renovations on the lobby of the Mac completed this fall, where it will be used as a community center.