Herdic Phaeton Company

The Herdic Phaeton Company was a late 19th Century horse drawn stagecoach company in Washington, D.C. It started operations in December 1879, taking over for a horse-drawn chariot company that had operated unsuccessfully for three years. The company took its name from the chariot's designer Peter H. Herdic of Wilmington, Delaware. They ran plushy upholstered carriages from 22nd and G Streets NW along G Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to the Navy Yard competing directly with the Washington and Georgetown streetcars. The company was more successful than the chariot company and continued to expand until 1887.

Lines were added from East Capitol and 11th Street to 15th and T NW in 1883. Other lines were added in downtown in 1886 along I Street, K Street and 13th Streets NW.

The electric streetcar, however, was too much for the company to compete with and when its principal stockholder died in 1896 it ceased operations.[1] Photo of a Herdic Omnibus and gingerbread waiting station at Lafayette Square in 1891.

Two of the company's waiting stations, nicknamed "herdics", still exist on the Capitol grounds near the East Front.[2]

References
  1. Tindall, Dr. William (1918). Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.: Beginning of Street Railways in the National Capital. Charlottesville, VA: Columbia Historical Society. pp. 24–118.
  2. Moeller, Jr., Gerard Martin (2006). AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. JHU Press. p. 33.
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