DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — and this one's got layers worth peeling back. Settle in. Out in southwestern Nueces County, there's a community called Kostoryz.
And if you want to understand that name, you've got to start with one man — Stanley L. Kostoryz, born Stanislav Kostohryz — who in 1904 sold his Czech-language newspaper up in Nebraska and pointed himself south toward Corpus Christi. Now that's a pivot.
You're running a whole newspaper in one language in one state, and one day you just... sell it, pack up, and head to Texas. He purchased property in the area and renamed it Bohemian Colony Lands. Then he did what any good newspaper man would do — he advertised.
Czech-language papers across the United States carried the word, and settlers came. Mostly they came from Czech communities right there in central Texas, drawn by the promise of affordable farmland in the southwest of the county. The new community took on a name, and you already know what it was.
Now, a community grows, and a growing community needs a place to gather. So in 1923, folks formed an organization — originally called the Moravian Recreational Lodge of Nueces County, later known as the Moravian Club of Nueces County — built precisely for that purpose. The very next year, 1924, members put up the first Moravian Hall with their own hands.
But here's where things get interesting. That first hall gave way to a second, larger structure in 1939, this one financed by the KJT — the Katolická Jednota Texaská, a Catholic Czech fraternity. Brand new hall, bigger and better.
You'd think that'd be the end of the building story. It was not. The U.S.
Navy came along and bought the land — land that by then included that second hall — for Cabaniss Air Field. Gone. So what did the members do?
They built a third hall in 1941. Third time, and they weren't complainin'. They just built.
Those halls — all three of them across the years — served as the beating heart of the community. Dances. Sunday gatherings after mass.
Programs put on by Kostoryz School. Meetings for Czech organizations. And from the 1940s all the way into the 1960s, semi-pro baseball played out in a field right behind the main hall.
Promotion of Christianity, Czech history, Czech music — the club held it all. Today, the Moravian Club of Nueces County is still out there, still maintaining the Moravian Hall, still carrying forward the cultural heritage of a community built by people who crossed an ocean, then a state, then built the same hall three times just to have a place to be together. That's not stubbornness.
That's roots.
What the marker says
An organization vital to the preservation of the area's rich heritage, the Moravian Club of Nueces County first formed to build and maintain a meeting hall for the many settlers of Czech descent, primarily Moravian, who migrated to southwestern Nueces County. Stanley L. Kostoryz (Stanislav Kostohryz), who in 1904 sold his Czech-language newspaper in Nebraska and resettled near Corpus Christi, led the migration. He purchased property which he renamed Bohemian Colony Lands, advertising it in Czech-language newspapers throughout the United States. Settlers soon arrived, coming mostly from Czech communities in central Texas in pursuit of affordable farmland. The new community became known as Kostoryz. In 1923, the Moravian Club of Nueces County, originally named the Moravian Recreational Lodge of Nueces County, formed to meet the need for a social facility in the growing settlement. Members built the first Moravian Hall in 1924, replaced with a larger structure in 1939 financed by the KJT (Katolická Jednota Texaská), a Catholic Czech fraternity. After the U.S. Navy bought land, then including the second hall, for Cabaniss Air Field, members built a third hall (1941). The various club halls served as centers for social and church activities, including dances, informal gatherings after Sunday mass, Kostoryz School programs, meetings for Czech organization and other events. Additionally, form the 1940s until the 1960s, the club hosted semi-pro baseball games in a field behind its main hall. Additional club activities focused on the promotion of Christianity, as well as Czech history and music. Today, the Moravian Club of Nueces County continues to maintain the Moravian Hall, celebrating the area's cultural heritage. (2007)