Alexander Robey Shepherd
Alexander Robey Shepherd
The Man Who Built the Nation’s Capital
John P. Richardson
Foreword by Tony Williams
PUBLISHED FOR THE
UNITED STATES CAPITOL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BY OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2016 by John P. Richardson
All rights reserved
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Frontispiece: Henry Ulke 1871 oil portrait depicts Alexander Shepherd as head of the Board of Public Works. (Courtesy of Krystal Branton, Office of D. C. City Council Member Jim Graham)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Richardson, John P., author.
Title: Alexander Robey Shepherd : the man who built the nation’s capital / John P. Richardson ; foreword by Tony Williams.
Description: Athens, OH : Ohio University Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016024887| ISBN 9780821422496 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821422502 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821445891 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Shepherd, Alexander Robey, 1835–1902. | Washington (D.C.)—Politics and government—19th century. | Mayors—Washington (D.C.)—Biography. | Territorial governors—United States—District of Columbia—Biography. | District of Columbia. Board of Public Works—Biography. | Public works—Washington (D.C.)—History—19th century. | Washington (D.C.)—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC F198.R525 2016 | DDC 975.3/02092 [B] —dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024887
Contents
Chapter One. “An Apollo in Form”: Coming of Age in the Nation’s Capital, 1835–1861
Chapter Five. “A Practical Experiment”: Achieving Territorial Government, 1870–1871
Chapter Six. “Improvements Must Go On”: The Board of Public Works, 1871
Chapter Nine. “A Free Man Once More”: Bankruptcy and Preparations to Move to Mexico, 1874–1880
Chapter Ten. “A Life of Labor and Extreme Simplicity”: Seeking El Dorado in Batopilas, 1880–1882
Chapter Eleven. “Anxieties, Expenses, Delays, and Losses”: Journey’s End, 1882–1902
Chapter Twelve. “The Law of Necessity”: Denouement and Final Assessments
Foreword
I FIRST CAME close to Alexander Shepherd many years ago when I researched a presentation on city maps I was to give at the Library of Congress. I was amazed at the painstaking detail, captured in various maps, in converting Washington from a Civil War casualty into a modern city. As an inveterate walker of Washington’s streets and boulevards, I get another view of Shepherd. I delight in my own “reaction shots” of a visitor’s embrace of the National Capital, the awe of a tourist looking skyward to the Washington Monument, the reverence of the school child at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the enchantment of the convention attendee taking in the Mall for the first time.
And then there’s the quizzical look of the sightseer viewing the bronze statue of Alexander Shepherd in front of the Wilson Building in downtown Washington, D.C. The look tells you every thing you need to know about what the average American doesn’t know about the establishment of the Washington,
