The foundation for Fellowship Community was laid in 1905 when the PA Annual Conference (of what would later become Bible Fellowship Church) elected a special Board of Trustees and charged them with establishing a Home for Widows and Orphans.
In 1906, the Board purchased an operating dairy farm on 85 acres in Center Valley, and added 10.5 acres from the estate of Henry Sell a year later. In July of 1909, two aged female residents were welcomed to the 13-room brick house on the property.
By 1938, The Home and Farm had amassed a total acreage of 228, with three farmhouses, three barns and a 100 head herd of cattle.
In 1951, the Board concluded that the present facilities were inadequate, and a new Home needed to be built. For various reasons, this plan did not come to fruition until February of 1960, when the Board acquired a three-story brick building and adjoining lot on South New Street in Nazareth. The two remaining Center Valley residents were transferred, and the Home and Farm property was subsequently sold, later to become the major portion of the campus of DeSales University.
The Board purchased additional property on the opposite side of the street, and construction of a larger Fellowship Home which could accommodate 28 residents was completed in 1968.
Throughout the 1970’s various plans to expand the Home were under consideration. These plans became a reality in 1988 when construction was completed on Fellowship Manor, a 121-bed skilled nursing facility located on a 46-acre tract of land in Whitehall Township.
Upon completion of Fellowship Manor, the Fellowship Home in Nazareth was converted to a personal care center and was subsequently sold in 2003, the same year in which Fellowship Terrace was constructed on the Whitehall campus. This new 90-bed addition consolidated skilled nursing and personal care into one location.
Independent Living was added to the campus in 1995 with 8 single-story townhomes next to Fellowship Manor. Since then, an additional 111 units have been constructed as Fellowship Courts.
In 2014, Fellowship Villa was constructed which houses 64 personal care beds; Brooke Ridge Apartments, 12 independent living apartments; and the Zentz Community Center.
The most recent addition to the campus occurred in 2023, when a seven-acre land parcel, adjacent to our existing campus, was purchased for future expansion of Independent Living.
