"Temple Daily Telegram" - SPJST Dedicates New Home, January 31, 1971

              SPJST Dedicates New Home
From conceptio n (above) to reality
1971
1897
Becomes Center Of Czech Culture
The SPJST dedicates a new building today, a structure designed to serve the fraternal organiza­tion in both its business and its cultural pursuits.
Texans have long familiar with the initials SPJST. Less familiar is Czech name they stand for Slovanska Statu Texas.
English translation: Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas.
By any name, the SPJST is a proud organization with a proud tradition. For 74 years it has preserv­ed and the Czech heritage and worked to sustain and instill in its members the ideals of their pioneer forefathers who left Europe to seek a bet­ter, freer life in the United States.
The pages that follow are dedicated not only to the SPJST and its new headquarters, which will be­come a center of Czech culture, but also the peo­ple who created it the people who brought their love of freedom and family and their special streng­th of purpose to help build this land.
Through their fraternal organization, members of the SPJST do keep those same ideals alive today.
The SPJST was founded in 1897. It moved its Supreme Lodge, or state headquarters, to Temple in 1953 in line with a decision of the 1952 convention. The intervening years have brought growth and con­tinued success.
Today the SPJST opens still another chapter in that success story, a headquarters that brings great credit to the organization and to this city.