Slovenian National Home

The corner stone was placed on October 19, 1919 and sponsors at the christening of the building were Jacob Janchar and Mary Kuznik.
The big day came on June 13, 1920. A grand opening complete with parade, speakers and festivities kicked off the hall in high style. At the opening, President, John Lekan stepped on the stage and among his first words were "This is our Slovenski Narodni Dom No.2 which we can all be proud." He was followed by other guest speakers and singing groups as Dr. Zvon, Slovenija and others.
That night a dance was scheduled and an auction for the first dance was held. The auctioneer was Anton Globokar who opened the bidding at $5.00. Anton Grdini turned out to be the highest bidder at $65.00. His partner for the first dance was Agnes Bobna (Zagar).

The festivities ran through the wee hours of the morning and all had a good time. It was truley a big day for the Slovenes in the Newburgh. Lean-years prompted by the depression in 1920 and 1921 - plagued the home as it tried to get up on it's feet. The leaders of the home and many of the shareholders can be credited with making a go of it. Several took liens on their homes just so the financial integrity of The Slovenian Home could be maintained. It was very tough making ends meet. Among the unsung hero's of that era were the custodians. They had the big task of tending bar, managing, maintaining and cleaning the home, plus taking care of any incedentals that came up.

The first custodian was Frank Kokotek. The second was Ignac Jeric, who along with some of the directors, donated wine to the home to help meet expenses. Matt Zupancic, another custodian did the same.
Among the people who deserve much credit for the success of the home during these trying years were Florian Cesar and Andrew Zagar. Mr Cesar had the thankless job of being financial secretary during the depression suffering much mental anguish not knowing from day to day how the money would come in to meet expenses. He was honored as The Slovenian Man Of The Year through the Newburgh home through the Slovenian Federation of homes in 1964.

Mr Zagar was loved by young and old alike, and devoted his life to the welfare of the home until his unexpected death on July 30, 1939. Sad news hit the home in 1924 with the death of it's president, John Lekan. Joseph Lekan was elected to succeed him and he held the post for the next 25 years. Under his leadership, the home grew and flourished.

It was under his tenure of office that the mortgage was burned in 1929, a plaque honoring John Lekan was dedicated, the two lower leval rooms were remodeled and a great expansion program was launched in 1949. This expansion added a 12 lane bowling center, a banquet hall was built above the bowling center, which expanded the upper hall to a point where it could seat 700. The bar room facilities were expanded in the lower leval and a meeting room was added.

On May 22, 1949, In conjunction with the homes 30th anniversary, the addition was dedicated and officially opened. On January 15th of that year, the bowling alley went into operation. The first alley manager was Joseph Kovach.

In 1951, a new constitution and bi-laws were approved. The meticulous job of translating from Slovenian to English was done by Victoria Hocevar.