The Bohemian Commercial Historic District, also known as New Bohemia, is located in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. At the time of its nomination it consisted of 75 resources, which included 48

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, and 27 non-contributing buildings. with

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

n immigrants began settling in Cedar Rapids in the 1850s, and increasingly after the American Civil War in the 1860s and the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

in 1866. They grew to be the largest ethnic group in the city, and the only one to settle in a distinct part of Cedar Rapids. They settled along the Cedar River between the downtown area and the T.M. Sinclair and Company meat packing plant. The buildings in the district were constructed between the 1880s and the 1930s. They are largely narrow-front commercial buildings and corner blocks. The buildings housed a variety of commercial establishments: a movie theater, two banks, and several filling stations. It also includes a railroad corridor factory building, a fire station, and fraternal halls. The buildings are representative of various commercial architectural styles and vernacular building forms popular at the times they were built. The Lesinger Block (1883) and the C.S.P.S. Hall (1891) are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

Czech communities in the United States Czech-American culture in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Historic districts in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa {{LinnCountyIA-NRHP-stub