The Slovak J Club continues to carry Akron’s Slovak heritage forward, one bowling frame, monthly dinner and weekly fish fry at a time.
It’s a reminder that, more than a century ago, immigrant communities here built spaces meant to last — and that Akron’s history doesn’t just sit in archives. It still shows up for dinner.
To see for yourself, head over to 485 Morgan Ave. and grab a plate. Today, the space — also called the Jednota Club (“jednota” is Slovak for “union”) — has evolved from an ethnic fraternal club into a social space open to the wider community.
Slovaks in Akron, from bowling to fried fish
More than a century before the Jednota Club entertained with its old-school bowling lanes, monthly dinners and weekly Lenten fish fries, Slovaks emigrated to the U.S. in the late 19th century, settling in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Many of them worked in dangerous coal mines, steel mills and other factories.
The first Slovak immigrants arrived in Akron in 1890 from Bohemia and Moravia (regions of the present-day Czech Republic) and Slovakia, according to an Oct. 25, 1942, article in the Akron Beacon Journal. The countries were under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Many of the immigrants settled in what became South Akron, which began to develop as German and other Eastern European immigrants arrived as early as the 1880s, according to Charlotte Gintert’s essay, “An International City,” which appears in Akron at 200: A Bicentennial History. There were nearly 11,000 Slovak-Americans living in the Akron area in June of 1938, the Beacon reported, particularly in Barberton and Akron.
John Javornik, a field officer for the Akron district of the Home Owner’s Loan Corp. and a leader in the city’s Slovak community, said at least 85% of Slovaks owned their homes, and more than half of the residences in Kenmore were owned by Slovaks.
In just 50 years, Akron’s Slovak immigrants formed a vibrant community with five churches and 25 social, fraternal and religious clubs. Barberton also had two Slovak churches and several social clubs.
Slovak churches included St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, Holy Trinity Slovak Evangelical Lutheran, Slovak Lutheran of St. John the Baptist, Slovak Nazarene and Slovak Baptist Church. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is still active today, although the congregation is no longer primarily Slovak. The other churches do not appear to be active.
Clubs in Akron included the First Catholic Slovak Union (FCSU), Slovak Catholic Sokol, Slovak Evangelical Union Lodge, Slovak-American Political Club, Sokol Gymnastic Union, Slovak Dramatic Circle and others. At the time, Akron’s branch 553 of the FCSU was the largest of the city’s Slovak organizations. It remains active today.
Akron’s first Catholic Slovak Union
The FCSU is a religious fraternal organization that was founded in Cleveland in 1890. At the time, Cleveland had one of the largest Slovak populations in the U.S. The organization — also known as the Jednota — established an insurance fund and additionally served as a religious society and a way to promote Slovak heritage.
Akron’s Branch 553, the St. John Baptist Society, was founded in 1908. Few details about the branch’s history are available in the written record, but Jednota Club baseball, basketball, softball and bowling teams were mentioned in the Akron Beacon Journal as early as the 1920s.
The Slovak J Club
The clubhouse on Morgan Avenue is owned by the Akron branch of the FCSU. The branch has close ties to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, which is just a quarter mile away on Brown Street.
An Aug. 3, 1941, an Akron Beacon Journal article reported the sale of a 75-foot lot on Morgan Avenue by the L.W. Camp Co. to the Benevolent Society of St. John the Baptist, Branch 553 of the FCSU.
A June 17, 2019, Akron Beacon Journal article recounts that the area near Morgan Avenue and Grant Street was quite industrial in the 1930s, with Colonial Insulator Co., the L.W. Camp Co., Windsor Brick Co., Enright Lumber Co. and Perfection Rubber Co. all operating within the vicinity.
A portion of the lot sold to Branch 553 was once the site of a shale pit that the L.W. Camp Co. used to mine shale for roofing tiles.
It’s not clear where the Akron branch met before the clubhouse was built in 1942. The Morgan Avenue lot was likely chosen due to South Akron’s considerable Slovak population and its proximity to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and its parochial school on Brown Street. The school closed in 1986 due to low enrollment, and the building now houses Main Preparatory Academy, a public charter school.
A March 24, 1985, Akron Beacon Journal article said that membership in Akron’s various ethnic clubs, including the Jednota Club, was thriving in the 1930s. Festivals, parades, concerts, picnics and sporting competitions filled the calendars of these organizations.
But by the mid 1980s, despite opening up membership to those who did not meet the ancestry requirement to become a voting member, many of the clubs were facing dwindling membership. Te Jednota Club was an anomaly with 950 members. The club shifted its emphasis to social membership and focused less on ethnic identity.
Branch 553 regularly hosts dinners and events open to both its members and to the public.
One example is the club’s annual Slovak Vilija dinner, which features Slovak and other Slavic dishes such as pierogi, sauerkraut soup and kolache (a sweet pastry commonly filled with fruit jam or poppy seeds), as well as traditional prayers and practices to celebrate Christmas.
Additional sources
In Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Founding of St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church Akron, Ohio, 1907-1982, 1982. Akron-Summit County Library Special Collections.
Kopanic, Michael, “The Slovaks in Cleveland, 1870-1930,” in Identity, Conflict, and Cooperation: Central Europeans in Cleveland, 1850-1930, ed. David C. Hammack, Diane L. Grabowski, John L. Grabowski. The Western Reserve Historical Society: Cleveland, Ohio, 2002, 249-306. Accessed via Internet Archive.
Litner, E. J. “Mining and grinding methods and costs at the L.W. Camp Co. shale pit, Akron, Ohio.” Department of the Interior, United States Bureau of Mines, June 1936. Accessed via HaithiTrust.
Summit County Fiscal Office online property database