St. Malachy's Church, the Actors' Chapel
239 West 49th Street | Times Square | built 1910
Open on the map9 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1902
St. Malachy's is founded to serve Irish immigrants in Hell's Kitchen as an auxiliary to Sacred Heart
St. Malachy's was founded in 1902 as an auxiliary to Sacred Heart Church, serving the Irish immigrants who were settling in nearby Hell's Kitchen. It takes its name from a twelfth-century Irish bishop of Armagh. The theatrical identity came later: a chapel to St. Genesius, patron saint of actors, was added in 1920.
Source: theclio.com
- 1920
St. Malachy's opens a chapel for Broadway's actors
Founded in 1902, the parish finished its current church in 1920 as the Theater District grew around it. Monsignor Edward F. Leonard added the basement Chapel of St. Genesius, patron saint of actors, and won permission for 4 a.m. Masses to fit show schedules. The church held Rudolph Valentino's funeral and the wedding of Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1920
St. Malachy's finishes construction after a decade of building
Ground was broken in 1910 for the Gothic Revival church, designed by ecclesiastical architect Joseph Hubert McGuire, and construction dragged on for a decade before completion. Architect Robert J. Reiley later designed a western wing addition to the church in 1930.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1926
Rudolph Valentino's funeral draws mourners to St. Malachy's
The Theater District church, already known as the spiritual home of Broadway performers, hosted the funeral of silent-film idol Rudolph Valentino. Entertainers including Fred Allen, George M. Cohan, and Spencer Tracy were counted among the congregation over the following decades, and the church chimes were said to play a tune from 'There's No Business Like Show Business'.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1929
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Crawford marry in the Actors' Chapel
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Crawford were married at St. Malachy's, known as the Actors' Chapel, on June 3, 1929, though neither of them was Catholic. Fairbanks was 19 and Crawford was three or four years older. The witnesses were his mother, Beth Sully, and the actor Jack Whiting, who married each other a few weeks later.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1934
Paul Creston begins a 33-year run as the church organist
Composer Paul Creston took the organist post at St. Malachy's in 1934, a position he held until 1967, launching his professional music career from the church's loft. By the late 1960s, monthly Sunday attendance at the church had grown to some 16,000 worshippers, reflecting its draw among the neighborhood's theater community.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1942
Bandleader Bunny Berigan's funeral is held at St. Malachy's
The trumpeter and bandleader Bunny Berigan died at 33 after suffering a massive hemorrhage on May 31, 1942, at the Van Cortlandt Hotel on 49th Street, where he lived. His funeral service took place at St. Malachy's on June 3. He was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery, south of Fox Lake, Wisconsin.
“Funeral services were conducted June 3 at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church in New York. He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery south of Fox Lake, Wisconsin.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
Father George Moore turns the parish toward the neighborhood's poor
By the late 1960s the streets around St. Malachy's had declined badly. Pastor George W. Moore, who led the parish from 1976 to 1991, refocused it on serving elderly, poor, homeless and homebound neighbors, and in 1991 he received a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
Jo Ann Tedesco starts theater activities in the Actors' Chapel
In 2011 the church's artistic director and resident playwright, Jo Ann Tedesco, started theater activities in the Actors' Chapel. The chapel is the one dedicated to St. Genesius, patron saint of actors, that St. Malachy's built in 1920.
Source: theclio.com
Further reading
- St. Malachy Roman Catholic ChurchWikipedia
Nearby
- Eugene O'Neill Theatre230 West 49th Street | 17 entries
- Ambassador Theatre219 West 49th Street | 12 entries
- Brill Building1619 Broadway | 14 entries
- The Theater Center1627 Broadway | 6 entries
- Walter Kerr Theatre219 West 48th Street | 12 entries
- Paramount Plaza1633 Broadway | 15 entries