If you lived as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and ...

Bohemian National Hall
The five-story building was designed by
William C. Frohne in the Renaissance
Revival style. It is a rare survivor of the
social halls built in the nineteenth century
for New York City’s immigrant ethnic communities.
Bohemian National Hall has been an
important center for Czech and Slovak
culture in New York City for more than
one hundred years. From the beginning, it
served as a focal point for its community,
offering ethnic food, instruction in Czech
language and history, and space for its large
community meetings.
In 2001 ownership of the Bohemian
National Hall was transferred to the Czech
Republic according to the contract between
the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary
Association (BBLA) and the Czech
Republic. To emphasize the link with the
Czech Republic, the building will contain
offices of the Consulate General and the
Czech Center. The BBLA will use the
entire third floor. The Czech Center exhibition
space and a Czech restaurant will be
located in other areas of the building.
It replaced an earlier National Hall on
Manhattan’s East 5th Street, which had
served the Czech and Slovak population
living in the Tompkins Square area of the
Lower East Side. As members of the Czech
and Slovak population moved to Yorkville
in the late nineteenth century in search of
better housing and employment, the Hall
followed.
It immediately became home to most
of the city’s Czech and Slovak social
clubs and organizations. The five-story
building designed in the Renaissance
Revival style is richly ornamented faced
in buff Roman brick, stone, and terra
cotta. Among its prominent features are
a projecting entrance porch with paired
granite columns and a two-story arcade
with Ionic columns resting on lion’s-head
bases. During World War I the Hall served
as the New York center for the liberation
activities that ultimately helped create
the nation of Czechoslovakia, carved out
of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Today, Bohemian National Hall survives as
a significant reminder of a major workingclass
ethnic enclave which once flourished
in Yorkville and as a very visible representative
of an important aspect of immigrant history
in New York City and the United States.
Large-scale Czech and Slovak immigration
to the United States began in the
nineteenth century, when the present-day
Czech and Slovak republics were part of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czech immi-
gration, like much other Central European
immigration, was sparked by
the revolutionary movements
of 1848; Slovak immigration
began in the early 1870s, picking
up in numbers after 1890.
The first wave of Czechs
generally settled in the
Midwestern states where
inexpensive farmland was
available, and the largest
Czech communities developed
in Midwestern cities.
Many Czech immigrants
settled in New York City,
however, and by the late
1870s had formed a commu-
nity on the Lower East Side
Bohemian National Hall, circa 1901
in the area around Tompkins
photo courtesy of the Museum of the
Square, already known as a City of New York. The Wurts Collection
German enclave. The Czechs
over cooperation on renovation
of the Bohemian National
Hall. The solution was to
transfer ownership of the
located between East Houston and East building to the Czech Republic for $1 and
8th Streets around the Square, and espe- have the Czech Republic assume responsicially
from East 3rd to East 5th Streets bility for renovation of the entire building
along Avenue A; Avenue B became known and provide rent-free use of one floor to
as “Czech Boulevard.” The great major- the associations of the umbrella organiity
of the Czech and Slovak immigrants zation of BBLA. To emphasize the link
were working class, who arrived with cer- with the Czech Republic, the building will
tain industries, such as the fabrication contain offices of the Consulate General
of pearl buttons and cigar manufacture. and the Czech Center. The BBLA will use
During the 1880s and early 1890s the entire third floor, which includes the
(following the construction of the Third Dvorak Room and performance space. The
Avenue El), the Czech community migrated Czech Center exhibition space and a Czech
from the Lower East Side to the Upper East restaurant will be located in other areas of
Side, settling in the Yorkville area between the building. The renovation, completed in
Second Avenue and the East River, roughly 2008 of the Bohemian National Hall has
from East 65th to East 78th Streets. They become a truly common space for organiz-
were joined there by the Slovak immigrants. ing events and meetings of Czechs living in
(By 1900, the Czechoslovak population in America and their countrymen back home.
New York City rose to 27,000.) Yorkville The initial restoration of the building
at that time had a diverse immigrant popu- façade was carried out in the 1990s under
lation, including Germans, Italians, Irish, the direction of Czech-American preserva-
Hungarians, Greeks, Jews from Central tion architect Jan Hird Pokorny, who was
Europe, and African Americans.
also instrumental in the building’s designa-
The Bohemian National Hall continued tion as a New York City landmark in 1994.
as a Czech and Slovak institution for many A state-of-the-art performance space has
decades, while the Bohemian Benevolent been completed on the third floor of the
& Literary Association continued to main- building and is now being used for cultural
tain the building. As the Czech and Slovak and musical events. The restoration of the
populations moved out to the suburbs, how- elegant 1890s ballroom on the fourth floor
ever, fewer and fewer functions were held will be made available to the constituent
at the Hall. Space in the building had been Czech-American organizations for events.
rented out to other organizations, including Ed: On the occasion and celebration of the
many unions, from early on; progressively Grand Opening of the Bohemian National
more space seems to have been devoted to Hall, November 1, 2008, knowing that
such use over the years. From the 1940s to it has been a long road to refurbish and
the 1980s the theater annex was rented out restore this beloved Czech monument in
to a private operation. In 1986 the Hall was New York City, the government of the Czech
declared unfit for occupancy. In this threat- Republic is to be complimented for their
ened state, efforts to save the building were part in utilizing this facility and bringing
stepped up, culminating with its designa- new life to it.
T h e N e w s o f T h e C z e c h C e n t e r
3
tion as a New York City landmark by the
New York City Landmarks
Preservation Commission in
July 1994.
On December 7, 2001
ownership of the Bohemian
National Hall was transferred
to the Czech Republic according
to the contract between
the Bohemian Benevolent &
Literary Association (BBLA)
and the Czech Republic,
signed on January 31, 2001.
The origins of the contract
date back to 1997, when
the BBLA and the Czech
Republic began negotiations