National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library - Czech Points of Interest in Cedar Rapids

	CSPS Hall 3rd Street and 11th Avenue S.E. (southwest corner). Built in 1891 this building housed the local offices of the Cesko-Slovanska Podporujici Spolek (CSPS) or Czecho-Slavonic Benevolent Society. This organization, founded in St. Louis in 1854, was set up in Cedar Rapids in 1879. Additions were made to the building in 1900 and 1908. It housed not only the CSPS offices but also meeting facilities, a stage and auditorium, and a dance floor.Various commercial establishments rented parts of the ground floor to provide for operating expenses. An especially notable user in the 1890's was the Bohemian-American Hose Company (fire brigade) which was housed in the rear with the entrance doors, still present, opening on 11th Avenue. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It now houses the Service Press and Litho Company and an arts group called Legion Arts. The sidewalk here also had imbedded the names of businesses that contributed to the sidewalk construction. Because of a reconstruction project, these were removed and are now imbedded in the Masaryk Park sidewalk.
	ZCBJ Hall 3rd Street and 12th Avenue SE (southeast corner). Built in 1908 it was the second Supreme Office of the ZCBJ (Zapadni Cesko-Bratrska Jednota or Western Bohemian Fraternal Association) organization. (The first supreme office was at 123 15th Ave. S.E., the home of Alois Blaha, the first national secretary of the organization. It no longer exists.) The rear addition was added in 1932. The building originally housed the organization offices at the rear of the first floor and had a meeting hall and dance floor on the second floor with a third floor balcony. George A. Severa's clothing store occupied the front of the first floor. The ZCBJ, by then named the Western Fraternal Life Association (WFLA), offices moved out in 1959. The building has housed several other businesses since then. The current offices of the WFLA are located at 1900 First Ave. NE The sidewalk in front of the building contains the names of neighborhood businesses that helped pay for the sidewalks in the area.
	Sokol Hall 417 3rd Street SE. In 1873 a gymnastics training group was organized in Cedar Rapids and became associated with the national Sokol (Falcon) gymnastics organization. After several years of growth and moving from location to location, the current building was erected in 1908. It is three stories high with a finished basement and provides a gymnasium with balcony for spectators, dressing rooms and showers, a large club room, offices and a parlor for display of pictures and trophies.

ZCBJ Hall - Cedar Rapids Gazette insert, dated 06-16-1997, 75th Anniversary - Mercantile Bank 1922-1997.