Mr. and Mrs. R.B., of New York City, invited me out last evening for a visit to the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, which is about a 1-1/2 miles from my home here in Astoria. The Bohemian Hall boasts the last remaining beer garden in all NYC where once there were hundreds.

A little history: Czechs began settling in Astoria, Queens during the late 1800's, as many fled the oppression of the Austro-Hungarian empire. According to their website, the Bohemian Citizens' Benevolent Society was formed in 1892 and named after the medieval Kingdom of Bohemia. In 1910, the Society began raising funds for a Czech community house and over the next decade the hall and park were built on two adjacent parcels of farmland.

There's a funny typo in the paragraph on the building of the Hall:

"Members who were masons, plumbers and electricians volunteered their services to build Bohemian Hall. These men transformed a patch of Long Island farmland in to an authentic European Bear Garden."