{"id":41,"ordinal":0,"featured":0,"title":"Slovak Immigration","creator":"Jim Dubelko","description":"<p>Like America, Cleveland developed and grew as wave after wave of different immigrant groups arrived in the city at key times in the city's history. The Slovaks were one of those immigrant groups whose arrival in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had an important impact on the city's development and growth. The Slovaks are a Slavic ethnic people who for over 1000 years--from 895 to 1918, constituted an ethnic minority in the kingdom of Hungary. For much of the twentieth century, the Slovaks were one-half of the Czechoslovak Republic. In 1993, the Slovaks separated from the Czechs and, for the first time in their history, achieved their own independent democratic state-- the Slovak Republic. \r\nIn the late nineteenth century, as the result of industrialization in Hungary and the rise of nationalism among different ethnic groups living in the kingdom of Hungary, Slovaks began immigrating in large numbers to the United States. It is unknown exactly how many Slovaks emigrated to America, because until approximately 1900, they were labeled as \"Hungarians\" by immigration authorities. However, during the years 1899 to 1914--the peak period of Slovak immigration to the United States, nearly 500,000 Slovaks--approximately twenty-five percent of the total population of Slovaks living in Hungary in 1910, arrived in America. \r\nSo many of these immigrants came to northeast Ohio that by 1920 Cleveland had become home to the largest population of Slovak immigrants in the United States. In that same year the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood counted almost 4,000 Slovak immigrants residing within its city limits--almost 10 percent of the suburb's population. Slovak immigrants settled in a number of neighborhoods on the west and east sides of Cleveland, usually close to concentrations of factories where many of them sought unskilled work. Thus, Slovak neighborhoods developed, for example, in the Buckeye Road neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland near iron works factories; in the Tremont neighborhood on the south side of Cleveland near the steel mills; and in Bird Town, a Union Carbide company town located in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood. A number of the stories on this tour originated in these historic Slovak neighborhoods of Cleveland.\r\n</p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/34d6ef9688a04bd4b4ec57eb2d2d70d8.jpg","items":[{"id":596,"title":"The Battle at Saint Ladislas","latitude":41.48225800000000162981450557708740234375,"longitude":-81.62349699999998620114638470113277435302734375,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/34d6ef9688a04bd4b4ec57eb2d2d70d8.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/34d6ef9688a04bd4b4ec57eb2d2d70d8.jpg","subtitle":"Hungarians and Slovaks fight for control of their Church","address":"2813 E 92nd St, Cleveland, OH 44104","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":593,"title":"First Catholic Slovak Union","latitude":41.4690259999999994988684193231165409088134765625,"longitude":-81.650887000000011539668776094913482666015625,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/88d8ce4b046d074871313a6d09b37fc4.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/88d8ce4b046d074871313a6d09b37fc4.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"3289 E 55th St, Cleveland, OH 44127","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":598,"title":"Slovak Journalist Jan Pankuch","latitude":41.47242138065852401496158563531935214996337890625,"longitude":-81.78630352020263671875,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/06eb8667b30ba9c189fe8aec153a45d5.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/06eb8667b30ba9c189fe8aec153a45d5.jpg","subtitle":"\"The Pen is Mightier than the Sword\"","address":"2159 Elbur Avenue, Lakewood, OH","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":611,"title":"Milan R. Stefanik Statue","latitude":41.529355584217370278565795160830020904541015625,"longitude":-81.62772595882415771484375,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/8d0b4f244614dc0ec8e8d2509f59eb66.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/8d0b4f244614dc0ec8e8d2509f59eb66.jpg","subtitle":"Finding a New Home for a Slovak Cultural Hero","address":"Slovak Cultural Garden, Cleveland, OH","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":219,"title":"Birdtown","latitude":41.47514970582700044587909360416233539581298828125,"longitude":-81.7768192291259765625,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/7a8598959052e50a212af78d35ff6364.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/7a8598959052e50a212af78d35ff6364.jpg","subtitle":"A Company Town in Lakewood","address":"Lakewood, OH","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":398,"title":"Lee-Scottsdale Building","latitude":41.45734999999999814690454513765871524810791015625,"longitude":-81.56544400000001360240275971591472625732421875,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/24369525a932b9cbe4a858a4e4ffa3cc.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/24369525a932b9cbe4a858a4e4ffa3cc.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"3756 Lee Rd, Shaker Heights, OH 44128","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":108,"title":"Slovak Cultural Garden","latitude":41.52957529999999763958840048871934413909912109375,"longitude":-81.62717259999999441788531839847564697265625,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/cmp-slovak-stefanik1934_6afdb8c243.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/cmp-slovak-stefanik1934_6afdb8c243.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"East Blvd, Cleveland, OH","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":583,"title":"Monsignor Francis Dubosh","latitude":41.47719627818825216536424704827368259429931640625,"longitude":-81.77660465240478515625,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/096e5d11e275ec99ed900caf6ebce980.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/096e5d11e275ec99ed900caf6ebce980.jpg","subtitle":"Balancing Slovak Identity with American Patriotism","address":"12608 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, OH","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":493,"title":"Our Lady of Mercy Church","latitude":41.47917699999999996407495927996933460235595703125,"longitude":-81.68875600000001213629730045795440673828125,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/355e77464c2be520ebb60e4b441fbf08.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/355e77464c2be520ebb60e4b441fbf08.jpg","subtitle":"\"The Little Cathedral\"","address":"2425 W 11th St, Cleveland, OH","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":609,"title":"The Slovak Institute","latitude":41.48193280000000271456883638165891170501708984375,"longitude":-81.611789499999986219336278736591339111328125,"thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/380fd9de66845b068b785d549d2c26bf.jpg","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/380fd9de66845b068b785d549d2c26bf.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"10510 Buckeye Rd, Cleveland, OH 44104","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}