High up on the brown brick building at 445 S. Second Ave. in South St. Paul is a sign that says “Hrvatski Dom.”
That is Croatian for “Croatian Home.” Indeed, the building, constructed in 1919, has been a second home for the first wave of Croatian immigrants and for their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
That first generation dug the basement by hand and hung a Croatian flag that still hangs over the stage on the second floor. They went there to learn where to apply for a job at the Union Stockyards and the two giant meatpacking plants that were once the lifeblood of the community. They went there to learn how to become a U.S. citizen and where to take classes to speak English.
And they gathered at the hall for dances, dinners and weddings.
“People wonder why it was built in the middle of this neighborhood,” said Eunice Dasovich, the hall’s secretary the past three decades. “Well, they built homes on First, Second, Third and Fourth avenues so they could walk to work at the plants. And be close to the hall.”
The Croatian Hall, or “the Cro” as it is more affectionately known, remains a community gathering spot 100 years later — a place to throw a wedding reception or fundraising event, or just throw down some drinks in the basement bar.
And over three days this weekend, the hall will host a centennial celebration, complete with traditional Croatian food, music and dancing.
FAMILIES PUT MEMORIES ON DISPLAY
Dasovich has spent the past six months assembling dozens of historical artifacts and mementos to put on display for the event. She sifted through stacks of paper pulled from file cabinets, and made a call out to hall members for cherished family heirlooms.
“The things they left there tell you that they knew this was a safe place to go and bring their families,” Dasovich, 76, said. “There are naturalization papers, bank books, letters from the old country. Many things people would keep in a safe place, they would bring there.”
For the display, the Palla family borrowed a tamburitza that Albert Palla made in the basement of his Third Avenue home. Above the stringed instrument hangs a framed picture of a tamburitzan group that was taken at South St. Paul High School in 1934.
Dasovich gathered traditional clothing, also called costumes; two original hall chairs from 1919; cookbooks; photos; and the first share in the Hrvatski Dom Association, sold to Josip Babich on April 11, 1922, for $10.
Even the space that Dasovich chose for the display — the hall’s former third-floor balcony — has special historical meaning. Nearly every Saturday night, there was a dance at the hall. Entire families, from babies to grandmothers, would come.
“The balcony used to be filled with hay,” Dasovich said, “and the kids would sit up there and watch their parents dance and enjoy the music. And they’d eventually fall asleep.”
MUSIC FILLED THE AIR
At the turn of the 20th century, thousands of Croatians and people of Slavic descent came to the United States and many settled in South St. Paul to work at the stockyards and in the two meatpacking houses, Armour & Co. and Swift & Co.
The city became a melting pot of immigrants from Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Poland. They needed places to gather for wedding and funeral receptions, and began building their own halls.
By 1911, Polish National Alliance Lodge 1033 was built along First Avenue. Soon, the Croatians and Serbians built their own halls in the same neighborhood.
“You had the Polacks, the Cros and the Serbs, and they were all within a three-block radius,” said Tony Biljan, the Croatian Hall’s president since 2007. “I remember my dad saying when he was a kid that there was always a wedding or party on the weekends and that they would bounce from hall to hall.”
Joe Palla, a hall board member who grew up on Third Avenue, recalled how he would doze off to music coming from the halls.
“In the summertime, they’d open up the doors and windows, because they didn’t have air conditioning,” Palla said. “And there’d be weddings or music at the Serbian Hall and the Croatian Hall every weekend. And you’d hear it playing all night.”
Originally within the Hrvatski Dom, there was Lodge 316 and everyone spoke Croatian, Biljan said. Years later, Lodge 742 was formed for English-speaking members. The lodges eventually merged to form the hall’s Kaposia Lodge 316, which still exists today.
Many Croatians also migrated to the Iron Range of northern Minnesota to find work in the mines and soon started their own lodges and halls. Minnesota’s best-known Croatian, the late Gov. Rudy Perpich, was an Iron Ranger and member of the Hrvatski Dom in South St. Paul.
Today, the Hrvatski Dom is the only remaining Croatian Hall in Minnesota.
‘A RITE OF PASSAGE’
The nonprofit Croatian Hall has not only managed to survive, but thrive.
A turning point came in the 1970s, Biljan said, when the member-only lodge began allowing “associate members” and their guests inside the downstairs bar. Before that, the hall was just for lodge members, many of whom owned shares.
“That really helped a lot because the shareholders couldn’t support the hall … there were not enough of them left anymore,” Biljan said. “That basically let the public to come in and have a beer with their buddies.”
To become a hall member, a guest only has to sign off that they have Slavik ancestry of “some kind.” Behind the bar, a book has the names of members, which totaled 6,175 late last week.
South St. Paul Mayor Jimmy Francis said it’s “almost a rite of passage” for locals who turn 21 years old to stop by “the Cro” during a night of celebration to become a card-carrying member.
“I still carry my card in my wallet,” he said, adding he is the 2,469th member.
OFFERING A HELPING HAND
Meanwhile, the other two neighborhood halls haven’t quite stood the test of time like the Croatian Hall.
The Serbian Hall on Third Avenue is vacant, despite years of efforts by many to turn the space into a cultural center. The hall does not have a liquor license — it lapsed several years ago — or sufficient off-street parking for events.
In 1962, Polish National Alliance Lodge 1033 tore down its large hall because of a decrepit wood floor and roof beams. Locals still patronize its bar in the basement of a First Avenue duplex. But the hall does not host the number of special events and fundraisers like the Croatian Hall.
That’s what sets “the Cro” apart from other local hangouts, Francis said.
“They’ve probably fund-raised more money out of the joint than Fort Knox,” he said. “When someone has cancer, they give them the place and everybody shows up to support them. It’s just how South St. Paul is. The Cro has helped so many people by allowing them to have fundraisers there and just being that open place.”
The piles of spent pull-tabs on the bar top and tables attest to the hall’s fundraising — around $75,000 a year goes to youth groups and senior citizen programs.
PLANNING A BIRTHDAY FEAST
This weekend, the smell of sarma (stuffed cabbage rolls) will float through the hall. Lamb will be barbecued in a pit room located on the side of the building.
Early this week, Dasovich, the hall’s secretary, and other volunteers will start making 1,500 sarma rolls in the hall’s kitchen.
“I’ve made a lot of sarma dinners,” Dasovich said last week. “We used to have them twice a year for a lot of years, and I was always in charge of that.”
She said there’s really no trick to preparing them.
“Just be generous with the garlic,” she said. “And I don’t use tomatoes.”
Dasovich laughed at how people at the hall call her the “sarma queen.”
“I can sell them all day long,” she said. “I have a list a mile long of people in the Twin Cities who will come for them.”
CROATIAN HALL 100TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
- What: live music, dancing, food and drink indoors and outdoors.
- When: 4 p.m. to midnight Friday, Aug. 23; noon to midnight Saturday, Aug. 24; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25.
- Where: 445 S. Second Ave., South St. Paul
- More information: 651-451-1453; croatianhall.org
