A new events venue has opened in downtown Sudbury, with a pair of entrepreneurs renovating an almost 100-year-old church to accommodate two concert halls and a recording studio.
Jazz crooner Alex Bird performed to a packed audience for Knox Hall’s opening on Dec. 7.
It took “blood, sweat and tears” to get to that point, co-owner Dan Guillemette told Sudbury.com during a pre-opening night tour of the facility, while municipal inspectors did a final walkthrough.
“We’ve been going nonstop for days, nights and weekends since we took possession in early June,” he said, later adding that unexpected delays almost always come up in construction projects, and this was no exception.
Guillemette purchased the building with fellow local entrepreneur Liana Bacon, who also share business interests at 158 Elgin St., which houses The Night Owl speakeasy and the Books and Beans café.
Built in 1927, the Knox Presbyterian Church went up for sale earlier this year, and its new owners saw events potential within the historic building.
Guillemette said the venue is best suited to singer-songwriter and bluegrass sensibilities.
“It’s not designed to be a really heavy punk rock venue, so we’re trying to focus more on the adult-alternative style, and comedy,” he said.
“It’s an historic building,” Bacon added. “We’ve done some treatments to adjust for acoustics but it still has a really organic sound to it.”
Although they can accommodate various events and community gatherings, their main vision for the space centres around accommodating live music — a theme the Dec. 7 grand opening with Alex Bird and his band helped set in motion.
In the back room, Knox Hall supervising sound engineer André Plante set up a recording studio, through which he can record music from throughout the building.
“We’ve also wired this space so that we can basically plug in at any point, so we can record 32 tracks upstairs and we can also do the same in the lower level,” he said. “We can do that for any live situation, whether they’re in the main hall or lower hall. It’s going to be a very versatile recording environment.”
Curtains were installed to dampen the sound, but Plante said the historic church was built to create natural acoustics, and creates a big sound.
“We have really good control of the room and it’s sounding really nice in here.”
The main hall, complete with church pews, a balcony and a vaulted ceiling, currently has a capacity of 324, while the downstairs events space has room for 40 to 150, and is accompanied by a bar.
Sound from the main floor can be pumped downstairs, so those taking a break to go to the bar or visit the washroom don’t fully miss out on any part of the performance they are attending.
Although the event space was ready for guests on Dec. 7, the two entrepreneurs' ultimate vision has not yet been achieved, with it having only reached Phase One of a multi-phase plan.
The second phase will see the wooden pews replaced with auditorium seating and new flooring, and a studio apartment built on the second floor to accommodate touring acts so they have a place to spend the night. The third phase will include enhanced accessibility.
For more information on Knox Hall, their Facebook page is available by clicking here, and their website is available by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
