Czechs in Chicago

Most Czechs came to Chicago in 1851, shortly after the Austrians crushed the Czech Revolution of 1848. Their Slovak counterparts would arrive in the city about 40 years later.[1] They called their first settlement in the city, concentrated around Canal, Harrison, and Twelfth Streets, Praha (Prague), where they would establish several Czech institutions. Later, many of them settled in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, which was named after Plzen, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). The first Czech Catholic Church, St Wenceslaus, was founded at De Koven and Des Plaines streets in 1863. America's first daily Czech newspaper Svernost began publication in 1875. Also common in many Czech-American communities was a Sokol (equivalent to a German Turnverein), or a gymnastics facility, which fostered fitness and community bonding, located at Canal and Taylor. After the Great Chicago Fire started in Praha, the Czechs then moved south in an area they called Pilsen, especially after Italians and Greeks started moving into Praha.

Tragedy struck Chicago's Czech American community in 1911, when five-year old Elsie Paroubek was kidnaped and murdered. As a result, the Czech American community mobilized massively to help in the searches for the girl and support her family, and gained much sympathy from the general American public.

• Anton Cermak mayor from 1931 – 1933, born in Kladno, Austria-Hungary

• Chicago Czech American Community Center