I recently was asked about the stables that used to be near Garfield Park. This sparked a vague memory from when I hung out at that park with my pre-school son,ten-plus years ago, but nothing else. Fortunately, the Washington Post covered the situation fairly thoroughly over the years, so here’s the story of the old stables.
Sarah Davies started her business in early 1988, giving horse-drawn carriage rides on the Mall for tourists. She first appears in the pages of the Post in May of the following year, when a bill banning such rides came before the D.C. Council. While her business had thus far not been the subject of any criticism, the only other carriage operator in D.C. had been the subject of “many complaints,” according to the executive director of the Humane Society, Jean Goldenberg.
The bill was eventually changed to allow horses to be used on city streets under certain, strict, conditions. These conditions – which included what type of horses could be used – pretty much ensured that Davies and her Charley Horse Co., could survive, while her competitor, who was arrested for animal cruelty in late 1990, would be forced out of business.
The following year, a further law was introduced that would have entirely banned horse-drawn carriages on city streets. A referendum was added to the November, 1991 ballot, allowing the citizens of D.C. to weigh in on the matter. In the run-up to the vote, Davies took councilmember Harry Thomas Sr. (seen above) out for a spin, a ride he was quoted in the Post as saying was “beautiful.” In spite of this show of support, Davies was sure that the referendum would pass especially as its proponents had outspent her 33:1, and so was “ecstatic” when the votes were tallied and it had failed.
Around this time, Davies moved her horses to their location under the SE Freeway, onto land owned by the District government that had previously been used as junkyard. For the next 15 years, she and her horses, the number of which varied between four and six, lived a quiet life here. The most excitement came in 1999 when a Post reporter borrowed one of her horses to recreate the ride of John Wilkes Booth through Washington on April 14, 1865. Otherwise, her company was occasionally listed as a possible vendor for bridal parties or as an offbeat way of seeing the city.
The year after the Booth reenactment, the same reporter returned to ask Davies more about her business. Davies said that she liked the location because she did not have to truck the horses into town every day, but that they had more freedom than they would have in a stable downtown. She also said that the freeway noise sometimes bothered new arrivals, but the older horses were able to help them adjust. She worried about development encroaching on her paddock, and plans to change the nearby streets and railroad tracks.
A 2007 article about the vast changes that were about to hit the formerly quiet area south of the SE Freeway quotes her as saying that while her business is “not essential[, it] makes a contribution to the flavor of D.C.”
It is the last time that she would be quoted in the paper. There is no indication of when, or under what circumstances, she had to close shop. Today, the space is used by the Navy Yard Dog Park.