Tragic Details About The Founder Of America's First Lesbian Bar

Although Eve's Hangout only existed for two years, Eve Adams' legacy in Greenwich Village was not soon forgotten. Opened in 1925, Eve's Hangout can be considered the first lesbian bar in America, although since this was during Prohibition there was no alcohol being served. Eve's Hangout was considered a tearoom and a club, and in addition to serving tea in a queer-friendly environment, the space was also used for poetry readings, discussions, and musical performances. With a sign in the tearoom that read "Men are admitted but not welcome," the space was unapologetically for women, although many men, such as Henry Miller, frequented it as well.

Eve Adams was the life and soul of Eve's Hangout. Adams was friends with many of New York's activists and intelligentsia at the time and although Adams isn't as contemporarily known as her friend Emma Goldman, she and her tearoom were incredibly popular with the crowd of cultural activists.

Tragically, Adams' sexuality was used against her when a collection of short stories she'd written, Lesbian Love, resulting in an obscenity and disorderly conduct charge and her deportation in 1927. Unfortunately, after being deported by the United States back to Poland, Adams met an untimely demise at Auschwitz after the Nazis captured her in the south of France. These are some tragic details about the founder of America's first lesbian bar.

In 1925, Adams opened Eve's Hangout, also known as Eve Adams' Tearoom, at 129 MacDougal Street. It soon became one of the most popular spots of the neighborhood. According to NYC LGBT Sites, by the 1920s, Greenwich Village had become one of the first neighborhoods to accept an open lesbian and gay presence. Eve's Hangout was also especially appreciated after several police crackdowns in 1924 and 1925 had closed down several queer-friendly spots in the Village.

The tearoom became a welcome gathering spot and open parlor for immigrant intellectuals, women, and Jewish people. According to Atlas Obscura, the space was also created to be a space for queer women and frequently "hosted after-hours, locked-doors meetings, where women-loving women could share their experiences without fear of censorship or discrimination." At the time, women also rarely went into restaurants without a male guardian, but Eve's Hangout provided a safe space for women to venture into on their own.

Those who entered the tearoom were greeted by a sign that read "Men are admitted but not welcome," demonstrative of the spirit of the tearoom. This was taken in good humor by the men who frequented the tearoom, like Henry Miller. Adams even loaned money to Miller when his mistress couldn't afford to front his bills. In 1931, one columnist described the tearoom as "one of the most delightful hang-outs the Village ever had." Adams was even affectionately called "the queen of the third sex" by commentators.

Unfortunately, Adam's thriving tearoom drew the resentment of Bobby Edwards, a writer for the Greenwich Village Quill. With an office across the street from the tearoom, Edwards was especially displeased at the increased presence of lesbians and immigrants in the neighborhood. According to Gay New York by George Chauncey, Edwards refused to mention the tearoom in his column until June, 1926, and when he finally did mention it, his disgust was palpable. He described the tearoom as a place "where ladies prefer each other. Not very healthy for she-adolescents, nor comfortable for he-men."

It's more than likely that Edwards was involved in the police raid that ultimately led to the shutdown of the tearoom, for two nights after Edwards participated in a poetry reading at Eve's Hangout, it was raided by the police. At least one person posited the idea that Edwards was responsible for orchestrating a campaign against the visibility of lesbians that led directly to the police raid. Edwards seemed insulted by these charges and contested that although he'd "longed to cast out [from the Village] all radicals, Freudians, androgynes, narcissi, etc., ... I was no Mussolini."

But when Eve's Hangout was closed, Edwards made just a single mention of it in the September 1926 issue of the Village Quill with the line "Eve's place is gone," and noted that it had been replaced with a more "commendable proprietor." He also added charmingly that "boys must be boys. But girls mustn't."

Women began to join the ranks of police officers at the turn of the 20th century. According to the Los Angeles Almanac, Alice Stebins Wells was the first woman to be appointed as a police officer by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1910. In 1915, Well also founded the International Association of Women Police. By 1916, Wells' efforts in promoting the need for police officers who were women led to women being hired as police officers in 16 other cities in the United States. In 1916, the LAPD also recruited Georgia Ann Robinson to work for them, possibly making her the first Black woman law enforcement official in the United States.

According to Boston.com, the first group of women who became police officers in Boston were referred to as the "flapper squad" by the media. Their main responsibility was to watch over young women and keep them from "drinking with sailors and haunting nightclubs."

But many still struggled to be taken seriously. Officer Irene Bohmbach wasn't promoted over her husband because it "might cause discord in the home" although her husband was eventually promoted. And when Officer Sabina Delaney quit in 1922, she reportedly claimed that "no self-respecting woman could do the work assigned to her."

While Adams was imprisoned at the Women's Workhouse on Welfare Island, she ran into someone else imprisoned on similar charges, American actress Mae West. According to Atlas Obscura, West had also been charged with distribution of obscenities as a result of her Broadway play, Sex. West was similarly accused of "corrupting the morals of youth."

However, West's imprisonment was drastically different from Adams'. West was incredibly popular as an actress, alternating between Broadway and vaudeville shows, and was considered a sex symbol at the time. Her fame provided her not only special treatment, but a quick release as well. During her imprisonment, West's celebrity allowed her various privileges including dinners with the warden. And West was only sentenced to 10 days compared to Adams' year imprisonment. West was also released early after only seven days while Adams was promptly deported back to Poland.

According to The Women Who Made New York by Julie Scelfo, Adams pleaded with the American authorities to allow her to stay, saying at her hearing that "I love this country with my whole heart and soul. I want to become a citizen. If I am deported, my life is ruined." While West's celebrity worked in her favor and she left prison as a national icon, Adams' status as an immigrant, Jewish lesbian earned her no compassion from the United States government. And tragically, her prediction about her post-deportation fate ended up coming true sooner than Adams may have feared.

While Adams was initially able to have a comparatively peaceful life in Paris, homophobia and antisemitism found her in France when the Nazis marched into Paris in 1940. According to The Women Who Made New York by Julie Scelfo, as a result of the Nazi invasion, Adams fled south to Nice. She tried repeatedly to get help from foreign governments and friends, but with her American citizenship application discontinued and her Polish passport expired, Adams had little success. By this point, many of Adams' family members who'd remained in Poland had already been displaced or slaughtered by the Nazis.

In 1943, Nazi officer Alois Brunner took control of Nice and its surrounding territory. Along with hundreds of other Jewish people, Adams and her partner were collected and taken to a transit camp in France before being transported to Auschwitz. It was there that Adams was murdered in 1943, two years before the camp would finally be liberated.

Adams was not the only Jewish person who died at Auschwitz as a result of being denied entry into the United States. According to Facing History, in 1939, the United States State Department turned away a German ocean liner filled with Jewish refugees and sent them back to Europe, many of whom ended up being murdered in the Holocaust.