Evolution of Our Ethnic Community in New York City

Immigrants from Central Europe, arriving to seaports at the Lower East Side of Manhattan, initially settled in the area around the Tompkins Square. Later they moved up to the Upper East Side. This was a general migration trend of other ethnic groups: as the newly arrived acquired a safer foothold, they moved from the cramped Lower Manhattan to a recently opened space in the Uptown, not far from what would later become the Central Park.

The Czechs, called in Manhattan ‘Bohemians,’ took residence in the area between East 65th and East 79th Street, bordered by the Second Avenue and Avenue A (later renamed York Avenue), close to the East River. This area was generally known as Yorkville. According to old records, up to 90% of Bohemians in this area came from central Bohemia, from around Kutná Hora where in Sedlec was a poorly paying government tobacco factory. No wonder that these people, whole families including children, became cigar makers (doutníkaři), in basement apartments of houses (hauziky) owned by businesses in the cigar industry.

They worked hard and long hours but the pay, compared to the home land, was relatively good, the rent and food inexpensive. They raised enough money to allow socializing, even to pay membership dues to numerous ethnic societies that sprung up. Most of the imigrants opened bank accounts and some became inn keepers and others invested in real estate. First Avenue from the East 77th to the East 79th Street was known by locals as the Bohemian Broadway. There were Czech firemen, policemen, letter carriers, restaurant owners, funeral homes, real estate investors, lawyers and doctors.

The Bohemians published, at that time, two daily newspapers in Czech. Initially Mr. Capek of the society Slovanská Lípa owned a paper that soon filed for bankruptcy, losing all its assets of about $1,200. This paper was taken over by Mr. Mašín, owner of a small print shop at the East Fifth Street who renamed it to New Yorkské Listy. About the same time, in 1878 Dělnické Listy transferred from Cleveland to New York City. Another paper started publishing in New York in January 1879, the Sokol Americký. Sokols guarded their cultural heritage and cherished their library, establishing a Sokol library right at the time of founding the Sokol. There is a later record that in 1915 they set aside $100 for the library to acquire the Ottův slovník naučný.

Two new churches served the ethnic community: the Jan Hus Church on East 74th Street at the site of a demolished Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Saint John Nepomucene Church at the East 66th Street. The Saint John became in the 20th century an important center for religious worship and social activities of Slovak Catholics in New York.

Around 1890 the cohesive community in Manhattan started to disperse when about seventy Czech families settled in Queens, Astoria, an area abounding with farmland and forests. There they established the Sokol Fuegner. Other Bohemians settled in Morrisania, Bronx. There was another cigar making manufacture there and at the Karásek inn, the Bohemians established one of the oldest branches of Sokol, named Svornost. That rural inviting location was favored by vacationing Bohemians from Manhattan, especially at the time of Easter. It was Morrisania where the young professor Tomáš Masaryk arrived, first to the NY Seaport on the boat Herder from Bremen in 1878, to marry Charlotte, from the family of the insurance agent Mr. Garrigue. At that time there were no subways, no electric trolleys and the trip to Morrisania by a horse drawn carriage took multiple hours.

The new community of immigrants, despite the hardship of starting a new existence in a challenging environment, brought along from the old country an intense patriotic cultural zeal. The local press reported that Bohemians were cigar makers during the day but actors at night. The number and names of Bohemian clubs and societies varied in the course of years. In 1886 the Bohemian Benefit Order, founded as a life insurance in 1853 in St. Louis, MO, later renamed as the Czechoslovak Society of America (CSA), had a convention at the original Bohemian National Hall, located at 525 East Fifth Street, between Avenues B and C. The Hall was decorated with banners of the 132 constituent lodges belonging to this order that claimed a membership of 6,878. The insurance benefits appear even now as generous: On the death of a member the surviving wife was eligible for $750.

In 1900 the press still reported on the existence of over fifty Czech societies. There was a Czech School established at the Upper East Side in 1867, in addition to a Czech school at the original National Hall on the 5th Street and a school on the 30th Street. A large strike of cigar makers in 1876 – 1877 put many Bohemians out of work and financial woes paralyzed the social life, but only temporarily and the vigor of the community proved resilient.

There was a theater club, dance clubs, bowling societies, French horn players, horse riders, shooters organized in Svornost, further other lodges Slovanská Lípa, Včela, singers in Hlahol, also lodges Národní Jednota, Otakar, Jeroným, Jan Hus, Jan Žižka, Jiři z Poděbrad, Táboritky, Tyl, Pokrok, Queensdale and others. The horse riders used all kind of mares, that during the week pulled heavily loaded wagons but on festive occasions Sokols mounted them for a horse ride, ahead of the music and a marching band.

Of all of these societies the most organized and prominent were the gymnasts (turners) organized in Sokol that was founded in 1867. In the US the first Sokol was established in St. Louis, MO years earlier. It was at the August Hubáček inn at the East 5th Street in Manhattan that 59 Sokol members, mostly laborers, acquired a founding loan of $400 to establish their organization. Initially, they had four sections: choral, drama, exercise and education, along with a small library. Actually, there were four branches of Sokol in Manhattan: TJ Sokol, later at East 71st Street, DA Sokol at 72nd Street (later demolished), Slovak Sokol at East 70th Street (presently a sushi bar) and Sokol Orel at Our Lady of Perpetual Help that was catholic.

A Sokol NY flag (designed at the Ursuline convent in Kutná Hora for 200 guldens) and Sokol uniforms represented the organization. In 1882 Sokol NY expanded to include Sokol women, formerly Telocviční sbor paní a dívek v New Yorku. Eventually, many of the ethnic clubs were absorbed by Sokol.

Sokols had strict membership rules. They kept detailed archives and had to pay a membership fee. In 1896 about 10 cents a year were a mandatory member contribution to the Czech School. A gymnast who missed several sessions without excuse was dismissed. Sokols in New York were in close contact with other Sokol organizations, not only in Prague, but also especially in Baltimore (Sokol Blesk), St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland and Sokol Tyrs in Cedar Rapids. Chicago in those years was the second largest Czech city in the world.