Polish National Home

Bom Narodowy Polski, the Polish National Home, is a five-story masonry building with steel I-beam framing members. It was constructed in 1912-14 in the Georgian Colonial Revival style, and has been changed little since then. A brick annex was added in 1922 to accommodate athletic facilities. The main building faces Cabot Street. Its facade is in original condition with the exception of the first floor storefronts. Until 1941, there were four separate stores on the first floor, and access to the second floor meeting hall was by two narrow staircases from the south and north ends of the building. In 1949, a larger staircase to the meeting hall replaced the southern-most storefront.

The three re- maining storefronts incorporate a band of translucent leaded glass approximately two feet wide in a grid pattern above the display windows. The storefronts are separated by masonry piers faced with white limestone, except for the bottom four feet of the piers, which are faced with a polished granite veneer. The building's original copper and glass canopy shelters the center doorway. The piers rise to support a sign band which is a stuccoed steel I-beam. Above this is a white limestone architrave, the base of the Colonial Revival facade. facade is organized symmetrically with a slightly projecting center pavilion four bays wide. The main block extends two bays out on either side of the pavilion.

These bays are distinguished by their limestone quoins and quoin-like patterns fram- ing the paired, double-hung sash. The windows have limestone sills and architraves. Red brick fills the spandrels and separates the bays, contrasting with the white limestone trim. The center pavilion's four bays are separated by paired pilasters of white brick rising from the second to the fourth floors.

/Architect Unknown Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Polish National Home possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship and was significant as a focus of social life for Chicopee's Polish population for many years, and also as a strong symbol of acculturation, because the edifice bespoke the Polish immigrants' social and economic advancement in their new land. This news item appeared in the local press three months after the Polish National Home (PNH) opened on September 21, 1914.

It is both laudatory and critical of the Polish community but clearly expresses the idea that the PNH was a public symbol of the Poles' successful acculturation: A matter in which the entire population is concerned, and which is more to the discredit of the Poles than their division among themselves, is the use of the club license at the new Polish home. There is no doubt that it is popular. There is a con- stant stream of "club members" into the barroom at the close of every working day. Fabulous tales have been told of the amount of beer consumed every Sunday. The boxing matches in the hall above, in connection with the license, are giving the new build- ing a rapidly growing reputation, which is no credit to the Polish citizens or to the city.

The Poles have made a place for themselves in Chicopee. In the main they are industrious and honest. There are many examples among them of the ability to assimilate American ways and to win success that may be envied by many of old American stock. Their new hall was an evidence of their growing importance in the commnity.1 In addition to its symbolic significance, the PNH served as a social club.