Czechs in Chicago

Chicago has a large Czech population (colloquially known as "Czechcagoans").

History
The First Czechs came to Chicago in the 1850s and 1860s, shortly after the Habsburgs crushed the Czech Revolution of 1848 in the Crown Kingdom of Bohemia. Their Slovak counterparts would arrive in the city about 40 years later in the early 20th Century. 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 Pilsen, Czechia. The first Czech Catholic Church, St. Wenceslaus, was founded at De Koven and Des Plaines streets in 1863. America's first daily Czech newspaper Svornost 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.

Notable Czech Chicagoans

 * Adolph J. Sabath (*1866) - member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois from 1907 to 1952; born in Záboří, Bohemia, Austrian Empire
 * Anton Cermak (*1873) – mayor of Chicago from 1931 to 1933, born in Kladno, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
 * George Halas (*1895), nicknamed 'Papa Bear' – professional football player, coach, and team owner, he was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chicago Bears; born in Chicago
 * Charles Turzak (*1899) – Chicago artist and printmaker
 * Ray Kroc (*1902) – businessman who purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and served as its CEO from 1967 to 1973, Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's; born in Oak Park, Illinois
 * Kim Novak (*1933) – actress, songwriter and artist best known for the 1958 movie Vertigo; born in Chicago
 * Gene Cernan (*1934) – American astronaut and fighter pilot, one of the twelve men who walked on the Moon; born and grew up in Chicago
 * Judy Baar Topinka (*1944) – former Illinois state treasurer
 * Milos Stehlik (*1949) – founder of Facets Multimedia, film distributor, commentator; born in Slaný, Czechoslovakia

Institutions

 * Chicago Czech American Community Center