Thalia Hall: History & Progress

....Thalia, the Greek muse of comedy and poetry, shined upon the neighborhood in Pilsen when, in her name, a building was erected in 1892. Thalia Hall was the major gathering place for the newly immigrated Bohemian population of Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Eighteenth Street became the central business district in Pilsen. In addition to being a commercial district, St. Procopius Church, the Roman Catholic church of the Bohemians in Chicago, as well as the Headquarters of the Czech Slavic Benevolent Society, were also located on 18th Street. A public meeting hall, the staple element missing from the neighborhood, would serve not just as a theater, but also as a place to house meetings of local organizations, such as fraternal order meetings, social and political gatherings, dances, live music performances, and other social events.

On March 20, 1893, the Ludvik Players arrived in Chicago to perform Gazdina Roba (Gazda's Robe), which was the first documented professional dramatic performance in the Czech language in the United States. Due to the critical and financial response to their performances, the Ludvik Players decided to stay in Chicago and make it their base of operations. They made Thalia Hall their home stage at the beginning of the 1893 winter season. Although the Ludvik Players shared the stage with amateur productions, traveling vaudeville acts, and later, cinematic presentations, Thalia Hall became known unofficially as the Hall of the Ludvik Players (Sidlo Ludvikovcu).

..Thalia Hall is a four-story building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The first three floors are of Indiana limestone with alternating courses of rusticated and ashlar facings, capped by a Mansard roof. The north face of Thalia Hall alternates storefronts and arched stone entrances leading to the residential apartments above.....Thalia Hall remained in general use until the mid 1960s. The Czech population at the time began to move out of Pilsen as it became more prosperous. Pilsen then became a gateway for a new wave of immigrants, as a Mexican population now inhabits the area. Although Thalia Hall had sat empty for many years, it retains its integrity with the original decorative work in the theater remaining much the same as it did in 1893. Of the public halls that were built in Chicago at the end of the nineteenth century, Thalia Hall is a remarkable example for its design, the state of preservation. And the cultural impact that it has made on Chicago and the world.