Bohemian National Hall () is an historic building located in the

Broadway–Slavic Village Broadway–Slavic Village is a neighborhood on the Southeast side of Cleveland, Ohio. One of the city's oldest neighborhoods, it originated as the township of Newburgh, first settled in 1799. Much of the area has historically served as home to ...

neighborhood of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in May 1975. The hall was built to serve the cultural and educational needs of the city's Czech community, and currently serves as host to Sokol Greater Cleveland and the Cleveland Czech Cultural Center and Museum.

History

Bohemian National Hall was built in 1896-97 by

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

in Cleveland, reportedly becoming the "first hall in the city owned by a nationality group." The idea of the hall emerged in the 1880s in the Lodge Bratri v Kruhu of the Czech Slovak Benevolent Association. The fundraising effort was led by Czech American journalist , and the building was designed by Andrew Mitermiler, John Hradek, and the Cleveland architectural firm of Steffens, Searles and Hirsh. On October 22 and 23, 1915, Bohemian National Hall was the site of the signing of the

Cleveland Agreement The Cleveland Agreement (; ) was an agreement signed by representatives of the Czech and Slovak people on October 22, 1915 at the Bohemian National Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. Its purpose was to show commitment to the fight for the self-determinatio ...

by Czech American and Slovak American representatives. The agreement was a precursor to the

Pittsburgh Agreement The Pittsburgh Agreement was a memorandum of understanding completed on May 31, 1918, between members of Czech and Slovak expatriate communities in the United States. It replaced the Cleveland Agreement of October 22, 1915. It is named for th ...

, calling for the formation of a joint Czech and Slovak state, which was realized with the founding of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in 1918. Over the years, the building's exterior darkened appreciably due to the pollution from nearby steel mills. Sokol, a local Czech American society which promotes athletics and healthy living, purchased the building for $35,000 ($ in dollars) in 1975. Bohemian National Hall underwent a $400,000 ($ in dollars) renovation in 1997. The basement was deepened by to raise the ceiling to a more customary height. In the first floor lobby, paint was stripped from the

quarter-sawn Quarter sawing or quartersawing is a woodworking process that produces quarter-sawn or quarter-cut boards in the rip cutting of logs into lumber. The resulting lumber can also be called ''radially-sawn'' or simply ''quartered''. There is wides ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

molding and

panelling Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity ...

and a false wall removed to reveal a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

screen. The walls of the grand ballroom on the second floor were cleaned of more than a century of grime, and two ornate hand-carved columns were rescued and placed in the third-floor museum. An elevator was also added to the structure, to make the fourth floor gymnasium more accessible. In 1998, Sokol began construction on a $1.5 million ($ in dollars), addition to the Bohemian National Hall. Built by Panzica Construction, the volleyball court (which shared the ballroom) and the gymnastics practice area (on the fourth floor) moved to the addition once it was finished.

References

External links

Sokol Greater Cleveland - Bohemian National Hall
{{authority control Czech-American culture in Cleveland National Register of Historic Places in Cleveland, Ohio Buildings and structures in Cleveland Buildings and structures completed in 1896 Slavic Village Sokol in the United States 1896 establishments in Ohio

History

See also

References

External links