Greenwich Village

After high school, Calomiris went on to study for two years at Brooklyn College and Hunter College. Between 1938 and 1939, Calomiris was a photography teacher at a YWHA camp.1 In 1940, She passed a civil service examination for Recreational Director, overseeing playgrounds and settlement houses. 2

9 Jane Street

9 Jane Street in the 1940s and today

Since her adolescence, Calomiris desperately wanted to get a place of her own.3 Her job as Recreational Director provided her with the income to move to an apartment at 9 Jane Street in Greenwich Village with a roommate she calls “Betty” in Red Masquerade— a pseudonym for Gladys Cosner.4 In her autobiography, Calomiris explains, “I naturally drifted into Greenwich Village. I enjoyed living in an art center, and I met a great many friendly people with whom I found a lot in common.”5

Greenwich Village was a hotspot for artists and creative thinkers. See the 1943 New York City Market Analysis, originally published by the New York Times, the News Syndicate Co., the Daily Mirror, and Hearst Consolidated Publications.

 

  1. Angela Calomiris Resume, Angela Calomiris Special Collection, Lesbian Herstory  Archives, Brooklyn, NY. ↩
  2. Angela Calomiris Resume, Angela Calomiris Special Collection, Lesbian Herstory Archives, Brooklyn, NY. ↩
  3. On page 24 of Red Masquerade, Calomiris explains: “I also wanted desperately to have a place of my own. Privacy has always been and is now very important to me. I was tired of living in other people’s homes and in the regimented atmosphere of even the best run summer camps. The best plan, all considered, was to get a job that would allow me to go to college at night.” ↩
  4. Calomiris, Red Masquerade, 27; and 1940 Census, New York, New York, Roll: m-t0627-02627; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 31-129. ↩
  5. Calomiris. Red Masquerade, 26. ↩