Alexander Robey Shepherd by John P. Richardson

Author:John P. Richardson [Richardson, John P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General, Biography & Autobiography, Architecture, Modern, 19th Century
ISBN: 9780821445891
Google: N6vrDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2016-10-15T22:10:11+00:00

The 1872 report provided not only a massive amount of information about board achievements and the historical context in which they took place; it also said a great deal about how Shepherd saw himself. Considering later developments, in the early stages of the territorial government Shepherd considered himself thorough and highly organized, creating a paper trail to drive the point home. The 1872 report may be looked at as Shepherd’s way of telling his critics that every thing they needed to know about board practices could be found in its pages. While there was much about how Shepherd went about the people’s business that remained open to question, he saw himself as a meticulous and accountable recordkeeper. For example, at the end of September a special commission appointed at his initiative completed a compilation of all the statutes in force in the District of Columbia, totaling some one thousand pages. Pending approval by Congress and the Legislative Assembly, the statutes were to be published in one volume.50 At Shepherd’s direction, the board established the first building codes for the District of Columbia. The guidelines, prepared by newly appointed member of the board and Inspector of Public Buildings Adolf Cluss, established comprehensive rules for building construction and safety.51 As a member of the Board of Aldermen prior to the territorial government, Shepherd had made other contributions to collecting and making available information about the District of Columbia such as maps and photo graphs for reference purposes. In short, Shepherd demonstrated time and again that he was in favor of making vital statistics available for builders and developers.

What Shepherd could not publish or acknowledge, however, was his inability or unwillingnesss to question his own motives and actions and his tendency always to consider his actions in the public interest, regardless of whether the public was consulted or other wise made party to the decision. As long as District affairs were more or less under control, and as long as funding was available to pay for the public works program, he would hew to this line. Once things began to spiral out of control, however, the lack of oversight inherent in Shepherd’s individualistic management style became a problem that ended up magnifying rather than reducing governance errors.

The fall of 1872 saw reelection of President Grant by a resounding margin as well as a Republican sweep of both Houses of Congress, with two-thirds majorities in both.52 A 15 percent increase in the value of District of Columbia real estate in the immediate past year provided a strong, albeit implicit, endorsement of the actions of the Board in making Washington a more elegant and livable place. The Evening Star attributed the rise to “the confidence of the people in the new order of things” and “vindication” of the board’s actions, “what ever minor mistakes may have crept into the details of their vast function.”53 Not even an alarming outbreak of the usually fatal epizootic horse disease could break the positive mood, although the epidemic brought

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