Evolution of Our Ethnic Community in New York City

Archives of the Sokol NY reported the strongest membership year being 1911. In December 1901 the local press published reports on the famous Jan Kubelík’s violin concert at the Bohemian National Hall (BNH). He was introduced to the enthusiastic audience by the officers of the United Bohemian Societies. They offered him in appreciation a branch of a linden tree decorated with sixty insignia, bearing the names of each of the constituent Bohemian societies. After the concert, while the ladies were tossing bouquets from the ballroom gallery, maestro’s precious Stradivarius and Cremona violins were guarded by a New York Bohemian policeman.

In 1906 a controversy was generated by a catholic priest of the St. John Nepomucene Church who publicly objected to the Czech Sokol teaching atheistic doctrines at the Czech School located at the BNH.

Czech schools in Manhattan expanded and declined along with the density of the Bohemian population. Rudimentary attempts to establish a Czech school date back to 1856. At that time most Czech immigrants resided at the Lower East Side, between Houston and East 8th Street, between Avenue A and C. The ethnic groups Včela and Slovanská Lípa opened a more definitive school at the East 4th Street, in the building of the German-American School.

The Czech School located for decades at the BNH was founded in 1866. Until the new BNH was completed it used the back rooms of various restaurants in Yorkville. A Governing Board (Sbor zástupců) was elected using school funds provided by lodges: Řád C.S.P.S, Karel Marx No 129, and Petr Cooper No 102. Later joined by lodges Prokop Veliký, Vzdělávací Spolek No 1, and New Yorkský tělocviční klub, these were contributing to the school with 25 cents from each member. Other clubs supporting the school were TJ Sokol, lodge JE Purkyně, Velkořád státu New York, and Setnina Palacký. Lodge Obec Žižkovská was established solely for the support of the school.

With initial $108 the school acquired a part time teacher, benches and a blackboard.

After BNH was opened to public in 1896, it reserved two large rooms for the Czech School.

The response of the community was enthusiastic. In that memorable year one thousand children registered for the school. Such large student body had to be distributed to five classes. The Governing Board included representatives of 51 active member societies, paying the school a fee for each member. In 1901 the tuition of a student was 25 cents per year, for which the child received free educational material.

Česká Čítanka published in 1912 by the Czech School in New York was a remarkable 435 pages publication. It contains a chapter by J.E. Salaba Vojan that provides interesting demographic data on the Czech population in the United States toward the end of the 19th century. This data projected the Czech population in New York City on the overall picture of US Czech immigration.

Out of the US population of 93,402,151, the Czechs with about 750,000 represented more than one percent. The US Immigration Office reported between 1882 and 1910 an entry of 189,423 Czech nationals into the US. Most Czechs lived in Illinois – 200,000, of which 150,000 lived in Chicago, the third most populous Czech city in the world after Prague and Vienna. Nebraska and Wisconsin (mostly Millwaukee) had each over 70,000 Czechs. In Texas there were 50,000 Czechs who mostly emigrated from Moravia. Czech population of Cedar Rapids was the same as in Tábor, in South Bohemia.

Cleveland and New York City both were reported to have about 50,000 Czechs, Baltimore had about 10,000. Prague according to contemporary census had at that time 219,553 inhabitants. The Czech population of New York City equaled that of all Smíchov, one of the eight boroughs of Prague.

Čítanka of 1912 had also a chapter on Slovakia and in a half page it reproduced a children story in Slovak language. “The Slovak language is like our Czech language and the Slovaks are our brethren.” It reported the population of Slovaks in the US to be almost half a million.

In 1917 the Sbor zástupců (Governing Board) of the Bohemian Free School, New York published third Čítanka, a 144 page book with comprehensive Czech history that included many illustrations. They also proposed to publish a fourth Čítanka that was to include the Czech history from the Hussites to then present time. Czech schools in New York were not a substitute but complementary to the public schools, thus the focus on the ethnic history.

The Czech School notably contributed to ethnic cultural activities. There were exhibits of children art, large festivities at the BNH Ballroom for the 15th, 25th and 30th anniversary of founding of the School. Every year in May the School participated in outdoor activities of the Czech Day, with a child troupe of Bubeníci a Pištci (Drums and Fife) marching in a parade.

Continuing dispersion of the Bohemians affected the numbers of students. In 1922 they had already only 500 students, in 1929 only 250. Finally, in 1980 the classrooms at the BNH became silent. The Czech School continued in smaller branches in Astoria in Queens and at Pompton Lakes, NJ.