Vision creates new venue
Couple opens Lark Hall with hopes of drawing quality national acts
You can now do it all on Lark Street. You can grab a craft brew, a cup of coffee, a slice of pizza or quality meal and do some shopping from fine local vendors. And with Lark Hall up and running, you can go to a concert featuring area or national talent.
Owned and operated by longtime Capital Region residents Jenn and Justin Miller, Lark Hall has been a three-year labor of love for the spouses.
“We’re big music fans and travel a lot for destination events,” Justin said. “We always said, ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be great to have something here with a unique angle or niche.’
“We originally looked at the old Playdium (bowling alley) in Pine Hills because we thought it could be a local version of (downstate concert venue) Brooklyn Bowl, but there was a bunch of remediation that would have made it difficult,” he added. “Then this one came along out of nowhere.”
“This one” is 351 Hudson Ave. Constructed in 1916, it was the longtime home of Daughters of the Eastern Star, a women’s auxiliary of the Freemasons. From 1977 until 2017, it served as the location for dance studio and theater troupe Electronic Body Arts.
The site fulfilled two objectives for the Millers: It could host concerts and its dance space was ideally suited to become Jenn’s yoga studio.
In 2017, the Millers made a bid on the building. Since it’s considered a historic site, their purchase had to be approved by the state attorney general’s office. That was completed in