“Not every event fits into a box—and that’s exactly what Barrington Hall is built for. From reunions and Bar Mitzvahs to rehearsal dinners and celebrations of life, our space adapts to your needs with ease, warmth, and flexibility.”
— Barrington Hall website
Daniel Latzman and Dan Baker, co-owners of Great Barrington event space Barrington Hall (at 425 Stockbridge Road), are relatively new business partners. Although they bought the former Crissey Farm space together in July 2025, their lives had actually run in parallel for a long time. Since birth, in fact.
Back in the early COVID era, as strangers living in New York City, they happened to buy adjacent houses in South Egremont. Latzman wrote a welcome note to Baker, and when they met in person, they discovered they’d not only been born one year apart at the same hospital on the North Shore of Long Island, but also that they’d grown up in the same town. Turns out their mothers were related through marriage. Says Latzman of their first meeting, “I walked in and very quickly we were like, ‘Brother’? We felt like we knew each other very quickly.”
Latzman has a professional background in tech and operations and still owns a software company. Baker started in Los Angeles, working various roles in the arts and entertainment world, before moving to New York and segueing into advertising and finance.
The pair is now using their complementary skills as entrepreneurs to establish Barrington Hall as a go-to event space for not only the weddings, business gatherings, and nonprofit galas that Crissey Farm had been known for, but also as a performing arts venue and community hub, and they’re open to new ideas. Both are fathers of young children, so among their new ongoing offerings are youth ballet classes and concerts. For adults, they’re hosting (among others) a regular songwriters’ circle led by Michael Lesko, an open mic night, and a monthly Latin Night Salsa Social led by Prashad Abeysinghe and Luana Dias David. Construct is holding its annual Warm Up the Winter benefit concert, featuring Wanda Houston, at the hall on March 5th. And after our interview, the partners had to excuse themselves to set up for the weekly Wednesday lunch meeting of the Great Barrington Rotary club. (Full disclosure: I am emceeing a live storytelling event at Barrington Hall on March 1.)
The owners agree that a highlight of their tenure so far was the weekend residency of Armo, an Afrobeat band from Brooklyn, which they hosted over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. The band performed a Friday night concert followed by a Saturday show for children, when the stakes were high—and the weather forecast did not bode well. “It was our first kids’ situation, and it was in the middle of the big snowstorm,” recalls Latzman, acknowledging that they feared it might be a bust. “But 130 people came. Both events were huge successes. The band was incredible,” he beamed.
Altogether, Barrington Hall boasts 5,600 square feet of space. The main room has a capacity of more than 250 people, includes a full bar, and connects directly to the Barrington Brewery kitchen. Rentals can also include an upstairs bridal suite, which is getting new flooring and other cosmetic improvements, as well as the main room.
The new owners try to be as flexible as possible, within reason, in setting the rental fees, being especially mindful of nonprofit partners. “When we get an inquiry from a local organization that needs our space, we say, ‘Let’s find a way to make it happen,’” Latzman shares.
The current concert stage, including the lighting and sound systems, is rented and temporary. Latzman and Baker have assembled it all and taken it apart several times already, according to the needs of their performers and renters. (They intend to soon purchase and put in a permanent stage, complete with permanent lighting and sound features.) They’ve also introduced a pared-down menu for select events, courtesy of the Barrington Brewery kitchen, which they’re calling POP, for pretzels, oysters, and pizzas. Those options, combined with bites of the Brewery’s famous chocolate stout cake (and four of the brewery’s most popular beers), seem to be filling the food bill at least for the time being.
As for who first had the idea of buying a local event space, Latzman credits his partner. “Dan was the inspiration, honestly. He kind of put it in my head to do something like this.” And although he still runs his other company, Latzman is enjoying the new challenge as a welcome change of pace. “This is so much more interesting.”
For his part, Baker describes the role of Barrington Hall as providing “a community gallery space, spearheaded by music, arts, and culture… Once our kids came, it became about growing roots here, about how to be a part of the community.” For him personally, the new endeavor is like coming full circle. “This has always been my goal in life, to be part of the entertainment industry and create experiences.”
Asked about future programming, the partners share that they are in talks with the Boondocks Film Society about hosting one of their popular movie watch parties to take advantage of the venue’s oversized screen. They are also in talks with the Elizabeth Freeman Center for one of their events. Railroad Street Youth Project will return to the space for their spring Culinary Arts dinner. And Baker and Latzman are considering setting up rotating Tuesday night programming, including open mics, trivia, karaoke, or open jams. “It’s perfect for Tuesdays, because many restaurants are closed, and there’s nothing else to do that night,” Baker noted.
Barrington Hall is all about bringing people together in real time. “Experiences are necessary these days,” Baker emphasizes. “We need to connect with each other, live. There’s such a hunger for anti-AI.”
Follow them on Instagram and visit their website to purchase tickets for upcoming events.
