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Hopkins Hospital and they wanted their church in the neighborhood in which they lived. In 190 I fourteen societies within the parish consolidated their efforts and purchased land for a new St. Wenceslaus church. The fact that the land was deeded to a corporation of the societies caused a conflict with the Cardinal Archbishop who refused to give his permission for a new church to be built until the land was deeded to him. After some opposition, the deed to the land at 814 N. Collington A venue was transferred to the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the cornerstone of the present St. Wenceslaus School building, which included a temporary church, was laid on 14 July, 1902. At the direction of Cardinal Gibbons, St Wenceslaus Parish was to be known as the National Czech and English Parish. Classes in the school were to be taught in both English and Czech and church services were to be conducted in both languages. By 1905 the enrollment in the school had grown to 840 students in eight grades and, since only eight School Sisters of Notre Dame staffed the school, classes must have been unbelievably large.
After the St. Wenceslaus Parish had consolidated itself in East Baltimore, activities of the Catholic Bohemian community revolved around the church. The fourteen societies which pooled resources to purchase land for the church proliferated to nearly thirty. Ranging from the Sixth Ward Bohemian Democratic Club, Men's, Women's and Children's Sokols, Blahoslavene Aneiky Ceske, and the Czech Dramatic Society, these societies served the needs and interests of the entire community. Czech bakeries, groceries, tailor shops and clothing stores, drug stores and savings and loan associations conducted their business in Czech as well as English. In 1914 the cornerstone was laid for the new church. Italianiate in style, the granite church seats seven hundred, has three white Carrara marble altars, and was the spiritual home to 7,000 Bohemian Catholics. (By 1920, St. Wenceslaus was the fourth largest parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and had over twenty societies.)
The tower holds a clock and four bells which were evidently paid for by members of the congregation. In addition to its name, each bell bears the legend, Kmotfi
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