The Aquilian May 2017 Volume 79, Number 6
Gonzaga College High School Men For Others Since 1821
19 Eye St, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Repairing the Historic St. Aloysius Church By: Peter Brown `17 Editor-in-chief On April 6, during the middle of seventh period, Gonzaga met the unexpected. A brief but vicious storm system swept across the greater Washington D.C. area, and with it came several uprooted trees, toppled lamp posts, and downed road signs across the city. Gonzaga caught the brunt of the storm: Several powerful wind gusts swept through the campus blowing loose athletic equipment onto Buchannan Field, knocking over trash cans up and down the Jesuit Walk, and, most noticeably, removing a large
chunk of the steel membrane covering the southern wooden roof of St. Aloysius Gonzaga’s church. Debris from the roof caused by the storm was scattered all over campus. In the alley connecting the quadrangle to adjacent North Capitol Street, wood chips and roof fragments covered the whole driveway, and a large black slab of roofing draped over the north end of the church (remember – it originally came from the south side). Further on from the driveway, pieces of the roof flew all the way across the chasm between Cantwell Hall and St. Al’s to land on the roof
of Cantwell. In fact, many of those pieces still lie there today at the writing of the article on account of how difficult it can be gaining access to Cantwell’s rooftop. The damage done to St. Al’s roof led to a temporary closure to the section of North Capitol Street adjacent to the church while they cleaned up the pieces that blew off the church. Many were concerned that the damage would result in several important Gonzaga events, such as school masses, the annual Ignatian Heritage Day celebration, and graduation, to be held outside of St. Al’s. While the Ignatian Heri-
tage Day event had to be moved moved last-minute to the Carmody Center gym, Gonzaga did eventually congregate again under St. Al’s as a community for its last school mass of the school year on April 26, about three weeks after the storm. I recently sat down with Gonzaga’s President Fr. Stephen Planning, S.J. to discuss his perspective of the roof incident, to look over the immediate aftermath of the situation, and to iron out any details he could provide regarding the timeline for fixing the roof. “I could see that the skies were a little threatening and looked rather ominous that
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Poets to Poets, p.5
Guardians Vol. 2, p.8
day,” Fr. Planning said. “I could see from my office all this heavy equipment blowing across the field and thought to myself, ‘That’s not supposed to happen.’ Then the window started to rattle. I was nervous the window might even blow out! But it only lasted about fifteen seconds or so.” He mentioned that no sooner did it end that he received a phone call from Mr. Kilroy, Gonzaga’s Dean of Students, saying that something major had happened. “I went to the alley between the church and Cantwell Hall and I could Continued on page 2