"Czech California" - "Bohemian California"

Irving Cutler, Professor of Geography, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, published a book "Chicago - Metropolis of the Midcontinent" in 1973.  It went through several additional editions.

The book contained a summary of "Czech California", also called "Bohemian California".  Below is an excerpt related to that topic:

"As early as 1880 they began moving into what was to become the largest Czech community in Chicago. Known as "Czech California," it derived its name from California Avenue (2800 W). The settlement encompassed mainly the community of South Lawndale, and was bounded approximately by Rockwell (2600 W) to the east, the city's boundary with the community of Cicero to the west, 14th Street to the north and 33rd Street to the south. By 1910 Czechs owned about 80 percent of the dwellings in Czech California.

The major artery of this community was 26th Street, which was lined with Czech facilities, especially between Rockwell and Pulaski. At Lawndale Avenue (3700 W) was the three-story Sokol Havlicek-Tyrs which contained a large hall that doubled as a gymnasium. At Albany Avenue (3100 W), adjoining the Pilsen Brewery, was Pilsen Park where for more than half a century many Czechoslovakian organizations held picnics, dances, festivals, and political rallies-especially rallies for the independence of Czechoslovakia. A number of Czech churches were established in the area, including Catholic St. Ludmila at 24th Street and Albany Avenue and Blessed Agnes at 26th Street and Central Park (3600 W), and Protestant John Hus Church at 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue (3232 W).

Czech influence permeated Czech California. The Czech language was taught at Farragut and Harrison high schools, and streets in the area, such as Kostner, Karlov, and Komensky, were named for prominent Czechs. Twenty-second Street was changed to Cermak Road to honor Chicago's first foreign- born mayor, Anton J. Cermak, who was killed in 1933 during the attempted assassination of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Douglas Park elevated line which traversed both PiIsen and Czech California was dubbed the "Bohemian Zephyr."

The main commercial street of Cicero and Berwyn is Cermak Road. At the Chicago boundary with Cicero, where the black residential population ends abruptly, stands the huge Hawthorne Works complex of the Western Electric Company, Cicero's largest employer. Large numbers of Czechs and Slovaks are employed there. Nearby, on Cermak Road just west of Cicero Avenue (4800 W), stands the hotel where the gangster Al Capone had his headquarters in the 1920s. Capone terrorized Cicero and controlled its gambling, boot- legging, and even some of its elections and public officials.

Farther west on Cermak Road today is "downtown Bohemia," with numerous store signs bearing Czech names, babushka-wearing women, bakeries displaying Bohemian pastries, and restaurants such as Old Prague with its multi-colored Old World exterior. Because of its numerous savings and loan associations, often spaced only a block or two apart and sometimes even on adjoining corners, Cermak Road has been referred to as the "Bohemian Wall Street." Next to almost every savings and loan association is a real estate office with pictures of modest bungalows and two-fiats in the window. The penchant for thrift is reflected in a Cicero Life newspaper survey in the 1960s which showed that "18 out of every 19 Bohemians in the two communities paid cash for their cars-either 100 percent down immediately or within 90 days of purchase." Off the main street are rows of similar two- story red or brown brick houses, modest but neat and well-kept, on 25- or 30-foot lots, and usually debt free.

Today the majority of people of Czech descent in the Chicago area live in the suburbs. Unlike the suburban population of many other groups, the Czech suburban population is not dispersed, being largely concentrated in a few western suburbs. The rapid and continuing movement to the suburbs, however, has largely depleted the old Czech neighborhoods of the city. Praha, on the southwestern fringe of the Loop, has long been an industrial area. Pilsen is now almost wholly Mexican, though a very few, largely elderly Czechs still live there. St. Procopius is the only church that conducts the Sunday mass in the Czech language. A Czech daily newspaper is still located on 18th Street, but the six remaining Sokol groups are all in the suburbs.

The Czech movement out of Czech California has been more recent and is still continuing. Here, too, Mexicans now occupy most of the area. Some Czech institutions are still functioning there, but others have passed from the scene. Pilsen Park, the great Czech gathering place, has been replaced by a steel-and-glass shopping center with a large parking lot."