Antonín Holeček Senior

Antonín Holeček Senior was a building contractor operating in the Prague district of Praha-Vršovice and Jičín. He came from a building family (his father Antonín and brother Bohumil were active in Prague’s construction sector).

He arrived in Jičín in 1881 and established a company manufacturing cement paving stones and piping. Later, he took over a project from Plzeň contractors František and Eduard Menčík to construct the new Jičín State Grammar School (Jiráskova 30), which he duly completed in 1883. The same year he obtained a journeyman licence to independently pursue his trade as a bricklayer and plasterer, and three years later was licenced as a fully-fledged building contractor. He built facilities to further his construction enterprise: in 1907 he erected a circular mechanised brickworks on the road from Jičín to Robousy (he designed the kiln, drying room, and a 36 m high chimney). He executed contracts for the town authorities as well as for private builders, and was also a property developer who bought land to sell on after erecting houses. Indeed, a large quantity of homes that he had built, as well as purchased plots, were inherited by his sons František and Antonín, who continued the family’s tradition in the building trade.

In 1886 he built the first part of the barracks along the lime-tree alley – the building on the corner of the lime-tree alley and Argonská Street. In 1888 the town’s biggest entrepreneurs, the Knotek brothers, asked him to erect an engine house, foundry and warehouse, and the town commissioned the construction of a mains sewer from the barracks in lime-tree alley, running down Havlíčka and Pod Koštofrankem streets, and into the Cidlina River, and he subsequently built the public water supply from Studeňany into Jičín (1897).

In addition to fifteen buildings in the streets Tyršova, Svatopluka Čecha, and Vrchlického, built in the years 1900–1915 in a blend of historicising styles, he also built the Hotel Praha (Husova 310 /VP310/, 1909–1910), which was quite monumental by local standards and remained in the family’s property portfolio until 1918. He was also responsible for a series of public buildings, generally occupying one or other of town’s prominent locations: according to the designs of Jan Vejrych he built the Sokol Hall (1896), and modified its interior according to his own plans (later adding another hall in 1901); in 1906 he erected a building for the Civil Credit Union (Občanská záložna) on the corner of Husova and Jungmannova streets (today’s polyclinic at 54 Jungmannova).

Two worthy examples of projects beyond the town boundaries are the Hotel pod Šikmou věží in Horní Lochov (a significant building providing necessary infrastructure to the emerging tourist trade centred on Prachov Rocks) and the building for the Girls Elementary and Secondary School in Pelhřimov.

Antonín Holeček was active in public life: a member of the municipal council (where he led the construction commission), in the Sokol association he was deputy mayor and mayor, and he stood at the helm of the Czech Political Club (Politický klub český), focused on promoting the ideas of the Young Czech Party.

(EB, ECH, RJ)