East Monument Historic District
History
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the neighborhood was known colloquially as Little Bohemia or Bohemia Village. Bohemia is the historical name for the western portion of the modern day Czech Republic, and was the source of many (but not all) Czech language speaking immigrants to the area.
The folk art of screen painting is said to have originated in the neighborhood, at a produce store located at North Collington and Ashland Avenues.
By 1969, the Czech-American community in Little Bohemia was predominantly composed of aging homeowners who lived alongside more recently arrived African-American residents. According to a reporter with The Baltimore Sun, "The older people of Bohemian extraction still live in the houses they own...but they share the neighborhood with black people whom they do not seem to appreciate or understand." This was the last generation of Czech-Americans to remain in Little Bohemia in large numbers, with the neighborhood transitioning into a predominantly African-American neighborhood by the 1970s and 1980s.
The neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 8, 2009.
See also
- History of Czechs in Baltimore
- Baltimore East/South Clifton Park Historic District
- Highlandtown, Baltimore
- Patterson Park (Neighborhood), Baltimore