In addition to the hundreds of concerts offered by the Chorus of Westerly since their first performance in the space in 1968, Kent Hall has been praised by many of the guest artists who have come to perform in the space over the years. These artists have included Rudolf Serkin, Pete Seeger, Yo-Yo Ma, Charles B. Fisk, Ed Tarr along with prestigious choral ensembles such as The King's Singers, Chanticleer, The Tallis Scholars, The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, The Vienna Boyschoir, and many others.The Chorus of Westerly's regular season events, concerts, rehearsals, and classes are all held within the George Kent Performance Hall throughout the year.

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On the National Register of Historic Place, Kent Hall, 119 High Street, began its life in Westerly as a church. Specifically, Kent Hall was the town of Westerly's first Roman Catholic church - Immaculate Conception - and construction on the facility began in 1886. The first services in the church were held in basement on Christmas Day in 1886 in the vestry and continued in this spot for several years. It was not until October 19, 1890, in the midst of a terrible October storm, that the church was completed and officially dedicated by Bishop Matthew Harkins.

In 1933, the Immaculate Conception Church's then pastor began to put plans into motion for an eventual move of the parish to a more modern facility as Kent Hall (then church) was really never intended to last more than 40-50 years and the numbers attending mass had increased quite a bit. The church purchase property on the corner of Narragansett Avenue and High Street, but due to looming depression and then WWII, it would be 35 years before the church was to exit 119 High Street. 

However, by the fall of 1968, the Immaculate Conception Church finally completed construction on their new facility just one block away and moved out of 119 High Street. Around this same time, Chorus leadership had program a concert in the space and discovered its exceptional acoustics -- especially for choral music. George and Lynn Kent, Anne Utter, and many other Chorus leaders realized that the church itself was a possible long term performance home for the Chorus if a way to save the building (now 80 years old and falling apart) from the wrecking ball. 

The Immaculate Conception parish sold the building to Westerly Automatic Oil Heating for $80,000 (along with three other houses). Eventually, Chorus leadership raised significant funds and purchased from the oil company the 119 High Street property. Rather than the Chorus own the building outright, they formed a new 501(c)(3) organization -- the Westerly Center for the Arts -- to own, run, and operate the building. Thus 119 High Street (now Kent Hall) became known as The Center for the Arts. The Center owned and operated the space from the early 1970s through the late 1980s and presented many exciting and wide-ranging programs. The Chorus remained the primary tenant of the Center throughout this time.

In the late 1980s, the Center for the Arts organization fell on hard times. By 1989, it was clear the Center would likely not survive as an organization and could no longer own and operate the property at 119 High Street. In 1991, the Chorus of Westerly purchased the facility again. This time, however, the Chorus decided not to create another management organization for the facility and kept/owned it outright.

Upon acquiring the facility, however, much immediate work needed to be done. Over the next 15+ years, the Chorus raised nearly $3.5 million for various phases of renovation and repair -- work that still continues to this day. The largest effort was, in 2004-2005, the addition of a new office wing and backstage stair access, a nearly $2 million project. At that time, thanks to a gift from a major Chorus supporter, the facility (which had been going under the name Chorus of Westerly Performance Hall) was rededicated the George Kent Performance Hall.

The lastest phase of restoration focused on three key areas: the "envelope of the building" (the slate roof, the gutter system, the siding, and the structure of the bell tower), the HVAC (installing and repairing systems so that the main hall is properly cooled and heated, and a long-overdue rehearsal room and lower level renovation. To help with this phase of efforts, the Chorus of Westerly was a named recipient of the 2014 Rhode Island Cultural Facilities Economic Bond. The Bond, a $30 million grant program for cultural and historic facilities, has a specific award total of $1,054,200 for the Chorus of Westerly to continue its work on Kent Hall. Work in this phase began in 2016 and was completed in 2020.