Herdic Phaeton Company 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
Barouche or "barouchette". A barouche-sociable was described as a cross between a barouche and a victoria. A barouche-landau is mentioned in "Emma", published in 1816 by Jane Austen. It "combines the best features of a barouche and a landau". An illustration of the expensive and more rarely seen vehicle, on account of the expense, is shown in a paper by Ed Ratcliffe, citing editor R. W. Chapman's collection of the works of Jane Austen, in the volume Minor Works, as noted in Ratcliffe's sources. f In the 1994 novel, "The Alienist", which is set in 1896, by Caleb Carr a frequently