Evolution of Our Ethnic Community in New York City

Later years spelled a decline in the ethnic strength of the New York community. Stricter immigration laws were passed in the 1920s. Promising future in the newly established Czechoslovak republic, the diaspora of previously tightly knit ethnic groups to new job opportunities outside of New York City, a gradual melting pot assimilation, all this exerted its toll on the Bohemians at the Upper East Side.

After World War I much of the ethnic activity was taken over by Chicago which even had a Czech mayor, Cermak. The territorial integrity of the community on the Upper East Side was disrupted when the New York Hospital acquired the land between the York Avenue and the East River in 1932. The elevated subway along the Second Avenue was dismantled in 1940, taking away a convenient link with the community on the lower East Side. Older buildings, some of them in the past squalid tenements where Czech families lived for generations, were replaced by high rises with large influx of wealthier people who had no interest and no relation to our ethnic background.

The first broadcast of the Czechoslovak Radio Program took place in 1933 at the Kocik restaurant at the East 70th Street. Later, its organizer Karol Mikuš purchased a new location called Little Czechoslovakia, between the 72nd and 73rd Street, at Second Avenue. Little Czechoslovakia was a popular dining place with dancing that followed every weekly broadcast.

One of the Slovak announcers was Zlata Paces. In 1983 this radio station celebrated 50 years of existence but it fell on hard times for lack of financial sponsors.

There were several additional ethnic societies in 1983: Národní rada žen, Betka Papánková, Ch.G. Masaryk Society, Bohemian Citizens Benevolent Society, Astoria; District Council No. 5 of Metropolitan New York, Lodge bratři od Sázavy, Czechoslovak Service of Radio Free Europe, Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church at 332 E 20th Street, Slovak Sokol Supreme Lodge, Supreme Assembly I.N.S., Slovenská Národná Škola, NY with 70 years of existence, Slovaks in District 10 of NSS, Neodvislý národný spolok NY, Slovenský samostatný v nemoci podporujúci spolok.

Although the Manhattan community began to dwindle, activities at the Bohemian National Hall continued. In June 1938 there was at the Hall a welcome to the new Czechoslovak Consul General, the dinner was attended by 200 guests. In March 1939 over one thousand people attended the annual T.G. Masaryk day. The World Exhibit in Queens, NY, in 1939 included a Czechoslovak pavilion that hosted a speech of president Beneš. Facing expansion of Hitler’s Germany, this event stimulated a wave of enthusiasm among our New York community.