Clark’s Block was the name given to the building, its high brick façade a landmark looming over Main Street for nearly a century-and-a-half. Now, its preservation hangs in the balance.

It was rebuilt by Nathaniel Clark after the town’s great fire of 1874, in which its previous incarnation was destroyed.

Clark, a prominent town businessman and benefactor, had the structure immediately rebuilt to surpass its predecessor in stature, and stand as a symbol of resilience in the aftermath of that devastating fire.

“In many ways, it was his gift to Natick,” said Niki Lefebvre. She is director of the Natick Historical Society, a group that has spotlighted the history and importance of Concert Hall.

“I think it’s a remarkable space,” she added. “I thinkit’s something our community should hold onto and embrace. It accommodated grand events but also facilitated daily life of the community.”

As age took its toll, Concert Hall fell into increasing disuse during the latter half of its long lifespan. Yet during its heyday, the venue hosted concerts, celebrations and social gatherings of all sorts, even the wake of Natick’s Henry Wilson - a Massachusetts senator and America’s 18th Vice President.         

Though the exterior brickwork of the old building has been given facelifts in more recent years, what’s behind those walls has remained largely hidden. Concert Hall was inspired by the Italianate architectural movement, a 19th century style that sought to celebrate edifices and sensibilities of the Italian Renaissance. The tall arched windows of Clark’s Block and its ornate scalloped exterior are nods to the style.

From select vantage points at ground level, one can glimpse the sky through the lens of those high windows facing east and west, and imagine what the daylight illuminates within.

I stumbled upon that interior space decades ago in my role as an underage and uninvited explorer of Clark’s Block. Those surreptitious visits left an impression. After discovering the great hall, I would often return to the cavernous place, its dust lit by beams of daylight streaming in.

Its carved, ornamented and painted ceiling and walls signified some undiscovered history and grandeur, and the feeling of being in that special place has been mine to recall ever since.

Concert Hall has been spared much of the modernity that’s grown up and around it, beyond the public eye that might appreciate it, out of sight and mind as town life and attention has proceeded apace far below. Like some secret ceremonial chamber, walled off from memory and generations that followed, the hall is a living record of customs and culture long since past.

And it is that very character that some town residents are now seeking to preserve.

Learning of its owner’s plans to convert the hall into office space, a movement has formed in recent years to advocate for its salvation.

Natick’s Vincent Vittoria became interested in the great hall about five years ago, and undertook efforts to preserve and restore the historic space for use by the public. The Friends of Concert Hall is an organization that resulted from his advocacy, officially founded in 2018 to promote awareness and action on behalf of the hall.   

“Our group feels that Concert Hall is too unique, too beautiful, and too potentially transformational for our town center to not be restored,” wrote Vittoria in correspondence. “There is no other space like Concert Hall in our entire region and we owe it to our community to explore options that would see Concert Hall restored and used again for Clark’s original intention.”

Vittoria’s group points to tax and other financial incentives available for the preservation and restoration of historic sites like Concert Hall, seeking to work with the building’s owner to make it a reality.   

Ironically, it was the pandemic that may have saved the hall from fading permanently into memory. The recent economic downturn associated with Covid19 has changed the way the world does business, at least for the time being.

The future of assets like office space is uncertain, and such investments don’t fetch the premium price and status they held before the shutdown. Plans to repurpose the hall have been put on hold.

Photos of the historic landmark can be viewed on the Friend’s for Concert Hall Facebook page, and the Natick Historical Society’s website. The two groups have partnered in hopes of preserving the hall. The NHS site links to a short video about Concert Hall, in which Vittoria can be seen advocating for the space.

“I told my wife when I first started my effort a few years ago that my dream for this space is to dance with her in that space,” he says in the video. “I like to envision myself dancing with my wife, looking up at that beautiful ceiling someday, and saying ‘Wow. Look at what we’ve made happen.”