Sokol Park, Ash and Fifield streets | National or State Registers Record | Wisconsin Historical Society

National or State Registers Record

Sokol Park, Ash and Fifield streets

National or State Register of Historic Places
Sokol Park, Ash and Fifield streets | National or State Registers Record | Wisconsin Historical Society
NAMES
Historic Name:Lidice Memorial
Reference Number:06000301
PROPERTY LOCATION
Location (Address):Sokol Park, Ash and Fifield streets
County:Price
City/Village:Phillips
Township:
SUMMARY
Lidice Memorial
Sokol Park, Phillips, Price County
Date of construction: 1944
Designer: Vaclav Hajny

The 1944 Lidice Memorial sculpture is located in Sokol Park in a residential neighborhood of Phillips, Wisconsin. Modernist in style with Art Deco references, the sculpture is approached by a fieldstone walkway. Near the Fifield Street edge of the walkway, the year "1944" made of small stones is embedded in concrete. The Lidice Memorial design incorporates American and European art forms, sophisticated and ethnic, from the 1940s. The sculpture was designed by Vaclav Hajny and completed by Hajny, builder Carl Novy and others as a response to the destruction of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, and the murder and removal of its people on June 9-10, 1942, by occupying German soldiers and SS and the German Gestapo.

Vaclav Hajny suggested the Lidice Memorial and was a force for completing it. Hajny was born in Brnikov, Bohemia, in 1878. In 1906, Hajny moved to the United States, arriving at the immigration center at Ellis Island, New York on May 2. After moving to Chicago he worked as an artist and photographer. In 1942, after the razing and massacre of Lidice, Hajny was living in Price County. In 1943, he designed a temporary monument near Sokol Hall. Much of the material used to shape the 1944 Lidice Memorial came from northern Wisconsin. The fieldstone was from the Koci Farm east of Phillips. Granite came from Mellen farther north.

The site in Sokol Park is one filled with memories for the Czech-Slovak community of Price County. The park, now owned by the City of Phillips, became the local home for the international Sokol movement in 1927. Sokol, which combined physical and intellectual activities, moved into a school building in November 1927. The outline of the hall can still be seen in Sokol Park.

In recent years, the Phillips community has been saying the Lidice Memorial means this: "The name LIDICE is forged in bronze and iron across the top of it. The tall, round, red stone pillar represents the United Nations. The three iron rods to the left represent the Czechs, Slovaks and Moravians leaning on the United Nations. The evergreen spray depicts everlasting life and is symbolic that Czechoslovakia and Lidice, too, will rise again. The large half circle at the upper right hand corner indicates the rising sun, repeating faith that the people of Czechoslovakia and Lidice will rise again." The Czech-Slovak community sponsored the nomination.

PROPERTY FEATURES
Period of Significance:1944
Area of Significance:Art
Applicable Criteria:Architecture/Engineering
Historic Use:Recreation And Culture: Work Of Art (Sculpture, Carving, Rock Art)
Architectural Style:Art Deco
Resource Type:Object
Architect:Hajny, Vaclav (designer)
Architect:Novy, Carl (builder)
DESIGNATIONS
Historic Status:Listed in the National Register
Historic Status:Listed in the State Register
National Register Listing Date:04/19/2006
State Register Listing Date:01/20/2006
NUMBER OF RESOURCES WITHIN PROPERTY
Number of Contributing Buildings:0
Number of Contributing Sites:0
Number of Contributing Structures:0
Number of Contributing Objects:1
Number of Non-Contributing Sites:0
Number of Non-Contributing Structures:0
Number of Non-Contributing Objects:1
RECORD LOCATION
National Register and State Register of Historic Places, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin

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