Elza Calloway was born around 1858 in Georgia. By the later years of her life, she was living in Roanoke, Virginia, at 574 8th Avenue NE, where she worked as a domestic worker.
A widow, little is recorded about her earlier life or family, but her presence in the neighborhood reflects the many women who supported themselves through domestic labor in the early twentieth century.
She died on December 12, 1915, of apoplexy. Though much of her story is lost to time, Elza Calloway is remembered here as part of the community that once called this place home.