Rudolph Valentino was buried from the St. Malachy's Actors' Chapel in 1926. Among the pallbearers was Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

More than fifty years ago, the Actors' Chapel at St. Malachy’s Church on West 49th Street was visited by some of New York’s most famous theater faces. It was almost a home away from home for many Broadway stars. George M. Cohan, Rosalind Russell, Helen Hayes and Spencer Tracy could be found lighting votive candles on opening night. It was the Chapel where Douglas Fairbanks exchanged wedding vows with Joan Crawford, and Fred Allen and Pat O’Brien served as altar boys. When Rudolph Valentino died in 1926, thousands gathered at St. Malachy’s to pay a final tribute.

Today however, the Actors’ Chapel serves a different purpose. It is now home to Encore Community Services, a nonprofit dedicated to giving the many elderly men and women residing in this famous midtown theater district and neighboring Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton community an “encore” to life. Many of the elderly served by Encore are frail and live alone with little to no support networks of family and friends.

Encore's Yoga Class

One of the first efforts of Encore was to develop the Encore Senior Center. With funding obtained under the Older Americans Act, the under-utilized Actors’ Chapel was totally renovated and transformed into what is today a vibrant, dynamic and fully handicapped-accessible community center.

Since its genesis in 1977, Encore has grown into a multi-purpose, nonsectarian agency providing a comprehensive array of programs and services. Each year, Encore provides a total of 82,750 on-site congregate meals, delivers 46,250 hot meals to shut-ins, and provides 41,600 weekend meals. A variety of social services, health and recreational programs is also provided to seniors at the Center. For frail and homebound seniors, Encore provides specialized supportive services, aimed at helping them maintain their fragile independence and remain living in their community.

Encore is also sponsor of the Encore 49 Residence, an SRO-style supportive housing facility for homeless elderly with special needs. In a safe, clean and caring environment, residents are provided with their own small, yet private living units, and a range of mental health services. The Encore 49 Residence demonstrates that lives, once disrupted by poverty and homelessness, can be guided to the road of recovery.

	Encore West Residence

Continuing its commitment to elderly people in need, Encore has built a second housing facility for very low-income elderly called the Encore West Residence. It is located on Tenth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets, and consists of 84 independent living units for seniors.

One thing that has remained constant in Encore’s thirty years is its strong commitment to its mission: To assist elderly people with their daily needs, in an effort to improve their quality of life and to help them live with dignity and independence in their own community. Encore will continue to play an important role in the lives of seniors in need, and remain “Broadway’s Longest Running Act of Loving Care.”

The mission of Encore Community Services is to provide care and service to the elderly of the Clinton/Times Square/Midtown communities, and to any elderly person who comes to us; to assist those who are vulnerable and frail, poor and homeless, homebound and lonely, frequently desperate, most often ignored; to help them with their daily needs that they might live as independently as possible, with dignity and decency, in a non-institutional manner, in a safe and caring environment.

We believe we are all part of the human family and have an obligation to love one another. By nurturing, respecting and enabling, Encore hopes to improve the quality of an older person’s life, in an approach that emanates from the core of Encore’s commitment: we believe that what we do comes from the heart, and the heart is the center of all.

• Mutual of New York’s Volunteer Incentive Citation: awarded to The Friendly Visiting Program, “Generations Reaching Out Weekly.”
• New York State Coalition for the Aging’s 1999 Certificate of Honorable Mention: awarded to the C.A.R.E. Program, “Corporations Actively Responding to the Elderly.”
• New York City Department for the Aging’s 1998 Enhancement Project Initiative: awarded to the H.E.A.L. Program, “Helping Elderly Achieve Longevity.”
• 1998 Fifty Plus Expo Award: presented to Sr. Lillian McNamara, Director of the Encore Senior Center for her twenty-two years of service in the midtown community.
• New York State Coalition for the Aging Award: presented to the H.E.A.L. Program, “Helping Elderly Achieve Longevity.”
• New York City Department for the Aging’s 1997 Enhancement Project Initiative: awarded to The Bridge Project.
• The Eleanor Roosevelt Community Service Citation: awarded to the Friendly Visiting Program.
• The Mayor’s Volunteer Service Citation: awarded to the Friendly Visiting Program.
• Food For Survival’s Model Program Award: presented to the Meals-on-“Heels” Program.
• The Brooke Russell Astor Award: presented to Sr. Elizabeth Hasselt, Executive Director.
• The Samuel and May Rudin Community Service Award: presented to Sr. Teresa O’Connell, Coordinator of the Friendly Visiting Program.
• New York Newsday’s Volunteer Incentive Citation: presented to the Friendly Visiting Program.

• Department for the Aging - Services for New York City Seniors

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Located at St. Malachy's, The Actors' Chapel
239 West 49th Street • New York, NY • 10019 • (212) 581-2910

Copyright © 2006 Encore Community Services