Six weeks into their renovations, Kendall forgot to deadbolt the back door, and someone kicked it in and stole their power tools. After the police came, took a report, dusted for fingerprints and left, a still-stunned Kendall and DeVoll, who is an elementary schoolteacher, stood outside with their arms around each other. Slowly, a couple of men from the hack service across the street came by and stood with them, not sure if they should put their arms around the women but telling them they had friends in the neighborhood and shouldn't be scared away. A homeless man they had befriended told them he'd pass the word that no one should mess with them.
"And no one has," Kendall says now, her eyes welling up.
What otherwise would seem like a naive, do-gooding effort is countered by Kendall's sincerity and her decidedly non-limousine liberal background: She is from modest means - growing up, her family occasionally had to take charity, and her dyslexia prevented her from learning to read until her 20s or enter college until her 30s. She ultimately received a fellowship to study at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she received a doctorate in American studies.
For their bookstore and center, she and DeVoll purposely chose a neighborhood that hadn't been gentrified - which they fear only pushes the residents and their impoverishment to another area without solving the underlying social and economic problems.
"Intellectually, I see all the problems here," she said. "But I also have a vision of a beautiful, multicultural community owned by the people who live here."
The center remains a work in progress - construction material butts up against computer equipment, ductwork next to a pottery kiln. But already, one woman who took a GED prep class at the center successfully got her certificate, and another woman was motivated to buy a house a couple of doors down and start renovating it as well.
Stained-glass decorations and other crafts made by women who have attended classes at the center are on sale in the bookstore, and recently, a group of alternative health providers gave a wellness clinic upstairs. There is always coffee on, and tea, for anyone who wants to hang out.
In back, a brick shed that apparently was once used for pit bulls has been torn down, and the bricks used to create a koi pond and planters of herbs. All the work was done by female volunteers, although they turned to the guys in the garage for help with the heaviest work - ripping out an ancient radiator.
Kendall hopes that their transformation of one house on one block can spark a larger transformation. She envisions the center providing women with the startup skills and support to create their own businesses, or to buy their own houses. She's already actively lobbying in the neighborhood for others to start a companion center that would focus on boys and men.
But first things first.
"A lot of women in this neighborhood," Kendall said, "don't allow themselves to dream of what is possible."
