After more than a dozen years at the corner of Chapin and 15th Streets NW, Sojourners is moving to another location in Washington, D.C. So that the editorial staff could spend some days packing (and unpacking) boxes instead of corralling words, we've made this a one-time-only combined September-October issue.
The old building that weve been in is a mansion built in the first decades of the 20th century, one of several in the neighborhood completed at the behest of Mary Foote Henderson, a senators widow. Henderson hoped to make this stretch of 15th and 16th Streets - the crest of a ridge with the sweep of downtown Washington visible to the south - into "Embassy Hill."
Decades after its glory days, you could call this building shabby chic - gold-painted detailing on the ornate plasterwork trim, chandeliers...and ceilings that only fall down occasionally (we have the only organizing staff in town with their own hard hats). Along with actual work, this place has held parties, worship services, lots of intern farewell skits, and myriad prayers of sending, healing, and thanksgiving. Well remember much fondly.
We wont, however, miss the frequent lack of heat in the winter or cooling in the summer, and the organizing staff would really like to take off their hard hats. Were going to a new old building, the former home of the Tivoli, a 1920s movie theater. Well have fresh-built office space, with intact ceilings. We carry there our memories, a lot of files, and the blessing of having good work. Thank you, as always, for being part of it.
- The Editors