Fifth Avenue Transportation Company

Fifth Avenue Transportation Company
IndustryTransportation
Founded1885; 139 years ago (1885) in New York City, United States
Defunct1896 (1896)
FateDeclared for bankruptcy
SuccessorFifth Avenue Coach Company
Key people
Elliott Fitch Shepard (controlling stockholder from 1888 to 1893)

The Fifth Avenue Transportation Company was a transportation company based in New York which was founded in 1885 and operated of horse-and-omninbus transit along Fifth Avenue, with a route running from 89th Street to Bleecker Street using horse-drawn omnibuses. Fifth Avenue was unusual in that its residents opposed the installation of railway track for streetcars and was the only avenue in Manhattan to never see streetcar service.[1][2] The company was declared bankrupt of the earlier operator in 1896, and was succeeded by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company[3]

From 1888 until his death in 1893, lawyer Elliott Fitch Shepard was the company's controlling stockholder. He acted on his religious beliefs of the holiness of the Christian Sabbath, forcing the company to halt its operations on Sunday, the Sabbath.[4][5]

  1. ^ "GSAPP Historic Preservation Studio 2005-2006". Archived from the original on July 5, 2007. Retrieved December 20, 2008.
  2. ^ "Guide to the Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection, 1895-1962 - Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection". New York Historical Society. Retrieved December 20, 2008.
  3. ^ Brennan, Joe. "Local Bus Companies of Manhattan". NYCSubway.org. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2008.
  4. ^ The Illustrated American. Vol. 13. Chicago, Illinois: The Illustrated American Publishing Company. April 8, 1893. p. 427.
  5. ^ Gray, Christopher (October 24, 2014). "Refined in an Era of Superlatives". The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2015.