Bohemia Historical Society
Honoring Our Heroes
The Bohemia War Monument, Church Street & Smithtown Avenue, 1920–Present
For more than a century, the Bohemia War Monument has stood on the same patch of ground — the corner of Church Street and Smithtown Avenue, the historic crossroads of the village. The intersection has changed beyond recognition since 1920. The general stores are gone, the cigar factories are gone, and John Pearl Elementary School now occupies the corner where the village’s busiest commerce once gathered. It has watched a century of Bohemia walk past it, and it has grown, conflict by conflict, into a layered record of who left this small Czech-American hamlet to serve and who never came home.
1917–1920
A Town Pays Its Debt to the Great War
The monument was born out of World War I. By the end of the war in 1918, 20 men from Bohemia had served in the armed forces — a remarkable number for a hamlet of farmers, cigar workers, and shopkeepers. Most were the first-generation American-born sons of the Czech immigrants who had built the village in the previous half-century. Seven of those 20 made the ultimate sacrifice.
On July 4, 1920 — Independence Day — the community gathered at the intersection of Church Street and Smithtown Avenue to dedicate its first war memorial. The site was the heart of the village: the same crossroads anchored by the firehouse, the general stores, and the parade routes. The stone tablet was funded entirely by local donations, raised house by house from a community of cigar rollers, button workers, and farmers.
From the moment of its dedication, the monument became the spiritual center of Bohemia’s civic life. For generations, it served as the formal backdrop of the village’s Decoration Day (Memorial Day) parades — a fixed point around which the rest of the town reorganized itself each spring.
The Second World War · 1947
A Plaque for 118 Names
When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, Bohemia mobilized at a scale that dwarfed the Great War. The village had grown considerably, and the local defense industry — Republic Aviation, Grumman, and the newly built Islip Airport (renamed MacArthur Airport in 1944 after General Douglas MacArthur) — meant Bohemia residents were involved in the war effort both in uniform and on the home front, where many women took jobs in the booming Long Island defense plants.
By the end of the war, 118 residents of Bohemia had served in the armed forces — nearly six times the number who had served in WWI, and a staggering share of the total population for a community of its size.
In 1947, the community gathered again at the same Church Street and Smithtown Avenue corner. This time, a bronze plaque was added to the existing memorial, listing the names of all 118 men and women who had served. The dedication tied the new generation’s sacrifice directly to the older monument they had grown up walking past — a deliberate gesture of continuity. The men whose fathers had been honored in 1920 were now being honored alongside them, on the same stone, on the same corner.
Korea to Afghanistan
Becoming a Living Memorial
The monument has never been static. As later conflicts called on Bohemia’s sons and daughters, additional stone tablets were added to honor those who served in The Korean War, The Vietnam War and The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
Each addition followed the pattern established in 1920 and 1947: the names of village residents, set in stone or cast in bronze, placed alongside those who came before. The memorial is read today not as a single moment of grief but as a running record — a generational ledger of service that begins in 1917 and continues into the 21st century.
Twenty men in 1920. One hundred and eighteen in 1947. More in every decade since.
The arithmetic of a small village
The Same Corner, A Century On
A Corner That Changed Around It
What makes the Bohemia War Monument unusual among Long Island memorials is that it has never been relocated. The old commercial heart of Bohemia faded over the second half of the 20th century; the corner of Church Street and Smithtown Avenue eventually became the home of John Pearl Elementary School at 1070 Smithtown Avenue. But the monument stayed put. As a result, generations of Bohemia schoolchildren have grown up with the names of the village’s veterans literally on their school grounds, and the original 1920 stone tablet — the one dedicated by the parents and grandparents of children long since grown — still occupies exactly the place where it was placed on Independence Day a century ago.
Stewardship
A Community Tradition of Care
The monument is maintained today through the joint stewardship of the Bohemia Civic Association and Joseph Kovarik American Legion Post 1146.
That partnership is itself a piece of the monument’s history. Post 1146 is named for Joseph Kovarik, a Bohemia resident and World War I veteran who died in an elevator accident after returning home — one of the very men the original 1920 stone was meant to honor. The post’s own building at 826 Hubal Street was constructed largely by Legionnaires themselves; ground was broken in 1940 and the hall was dedicated on September 21, 1941, just months before Pearl Harbor. The veterans of Bohemia have, in other words, looked after this monument for the entire span of its existence — and the man whose name is on their own post is a man whose name is on the monument they protect.
In 2011, the Civic Association and Post 1146 led a major refurbishment of the site: the stones were cleaned, the landscaping was updated, and the inscriptions were re-cut and restored so that they would remain legible for the next century of visitors.
Visiting
Visiting the Monument
The Bohemia War Monument stands at the corner of Church Street and Smithtown Avenue, on the grounds of John Pearl Elementary School, 1070 Smithtown Avenue, Bohemia, NY 11716. It is open to the public, freely accessible, and remains the formal gathering point for the village’s annual Memorial Day and Veterans Day commemorations — as it has, on the same corner, every year since 1920.
It is a small monument in a small village. But the math of it is striking. Twenty men in 1920. One hundred and eighteen in 1947. More in every decade since. For more than a hundred years, on a single corner that has watched everything else change, the people of Bohemia have insisted on remembering each one by name.
A Century of Names at a Glance
1917–1918
Twenty Men Go to War
Twenty men from Bohemia serve in the Great War, most of them the American-born sons of the village’s Czech immigrant families. Seven do not return.
1920
The Village Dedicates Its Monument
On July 4, Bohemia gathers at Church Street and Smithtown Avenue to dedicate a stone tablet funded entirely by house-to-house donations.
1941
Post 1146 Dedicates Its Hall
Joseph Kovarik American Legion Post 1146 dedicates its Hubal Street hall on September 21, built largely by the Legionnaires themselves.
1947
A Bronze Plaque for 118 Names
A bronze plaque listing all 118 Bohemia residents who served in World War II is added to the original 1920 memorial.
Korea & Vietnam
New Tablets, Same Stone
Additional stone tablets are added for those who served in Korea and Vietnam, following the pattern set in 1920 and 1947.
Iraq & Afghanistan
The Ledger Continues
Names from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan carry the monument’s generational record into the 21st century.
2011
The Monument Restored
The Bohemia Civic Association and Post 1146 clean the stones, update the landscaping, and re-cut the inscriptions for the next century.