Bohemian National Hall

History and architecture

Bohemian National Hall (Nirodni Budova) is a rare survivor of the social halls built in the nineteenth century for New York City's immigrant ethnic communities. Constructed in two phases in 1895 and 1897, it replaced an earlier National Hall on 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 located near the cigar factories that employed a majority of the immigrants, the Hall followed.

It immediately became home to most of the city's Czech and Slovak social clubs and organizations. The five-story building was designed by William C. Frohne in the Renaissance Revival style. Richly ornamented, it is 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. Bohemian National Hall has been an important center for Czech and Slovak culture in New York City for nearly 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 large community meetings. During World War I, the Hall served as the New York center for the liberation activities that ultimately helped create the country of Czechoslovakia, carved out of the former Austro-Hungarian empire. Today, Bohemian National Hall survives as a significant reminder of a major working-class 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.