Eve's Hangout
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Eve's Hangout was a New York City
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...
established by Polish feminist
Eva Kotchever Eva Kotchever, known also as Eve Adams or Eve Addams, born as Chawa Zloczower (1891 – 19 December 1943) was a Polish-Jewish émigré librarian and writer, who is the author of ''Lesbian Love'' and from 1925 to 1926 ran a popular, openly lesbi ...
in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
,
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
, in 1925. The establishment was also known as "Eve Adams' Tearoom", a pun on the names Eve and Adam.


History

After running "The Gray Cottage" with Ruth Norlander in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
in 1921–1923 , Kotchever left Norlander and moved to
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, which had become an important area for the gay and lesbian community in New York City. In 1925, Kotchever opened "Eve's Hangout" at 129
MacDougal Street MacDougal Street is a one-way street in the Greenwich Village and SoHo neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. The street is bounded on the south by Prince Street and on the north by West 8th Street; its numbering begins in the south. Betw ...
, a mecca for bohemian New Yorkers. The only source that mentions a famous sign on the door that allegedly read "Men are admitted, but not welcome" is a 1926 article in ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', which accused Adams of being financed by "a ring of rich women cultists" and inviting "mannish" women preying on girls. This led Adams's biographer,
Jonathan Ned Katz Jonathan Ned Katz (born 1938) is an American historian of human sexuality who has focused on same-sex attraction and changes in the social organization of sexuality over time. His works focus on the idea, rooted in social constructionism, that t ...
, to claim that the sign "probably never existed". The place was a haven for lesbians and migrants, working-class people, and intellectuals. It became a popular club, especially for artists like
Berenice Abbott Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...
. Kotchever organized concerts and readings and meetings where it was acceptable to talk about love between women, political matters, and liberal ideas. Consequently, Kotchever became a notable figure of "The Village".


Police raid and closure

Bobby Adward, writing for the conservative newspaper the '' Greenwich Village Quill'', described the club as a place "''where it is not very healthy for teenagers or comfortable for men''." An upstairs neighbor complained to the police. On June 11, 1926, the
Vice Squad A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trai ...
of
NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
organized a raid on the bar. One of the detectives, the young
Margaret Leonard Margaret Leonard (May 27, 1916 – March 10, 2004) was an American tax consultant and politician from Washington. Leonard was a former Republican member of Washington House of Representatives for District 3, from 1981 to 1983. Early life On Ma ...
, discovered the book ''Lesbian Love'', that Kotchever wrote under the pseudonym Evelyn Adams. Kotchever was charged with and found guilty of obscenity and disorderly conduct. The bar did not survive the arrest of its owner and soon closed. Kotchever was imprisoned at
Jefferson Market The Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library, once known as the Jefferson Market Courthouse, is a National Historic Landmark located at 425 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), on the southwest corner of West 10th Street, in Green ...
before being deported from the United States to Europe, but Greenwich Village did not forget her.


Legacy

Eve's Hangout is notable for LGBT history as well as for New York's Jewish history. It is considered one of the first lesbian bars in the United States and is recognized as part a New York City's heritage, and is recognized as historic by the National Park Service. It is included on tours for Europeans on official US websites. and has become a must-see. Playwright Barbara Kahn wrote a play, "The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams," and musical, "Unreachable Eden," about ''Eve's Hangout''. As of 2020, the building houses an Italian restaurant and jazz club named La Lanterna di Vittorio.


See also

*
LGBT culture in New York City New York City is home to one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the world and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of ''Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day,'' wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most power ...
* List of LGBT culture in New York City *
Lesbophobia Lesbophobia comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, or as a social group. Based on the categories of sex, sexual orientation, identity, and gender expression, this negativity encompasses ...
* Timeline of LGBT history in New York City *
United States obscenity law United States obscenity law deals with the regulation or suppression of what is considered obscenity. In the United States, discussion of obscenity typically relates to pornography, as well as issues of freedom of speech and of the press, otherw ...


Notes


References

{{Portal bar, LGBT, New York City 1920s in LGBT history 1925 establishments in New York City Companies established in 1925 Cultural history of New York City Defunct LGBT drinking establishments in New York City Defunct LGBT nightclubs in New York (state) Drinking establishments in Greenwich Village Lesbian culture in New York (state) Lesbian history New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Women in New York City