By Jim Logan
Visitors to "Sleepy Hollow Country," as Washington Irving called the area, can explore a number of historic locations related to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Irving himself. Except for Irving's hometown of Manhattan, the following listings are all within a few minutes drive of the Old Dutch Burying Ground.
If you don't mind a little walking, you can easily trace Ichabod Crane's famous ride up the Albany Post Road (now Route 9, Broadway). There are several local sites Irving may have had in mind for the Van Tassel farm, but the dominant version revolves around the former Elizabeth Van Tassel house at what is now the northeast corner of Hamilton Place and North Broadway in Tarrytown, now the Landmark Condominium building. From the site of the Elizabeth Van Tassel house, walk north about 0.3 mile on Route 9 (North Broadway) to the André captors' monument in Patriots Park, the spot where Ichabod was met by the headless horseman. From here you can, if you wish, approximate Ichabod's flight by galloping frantically along Broadway until you reach the Old Dutch Church, about 0.6 mile.
Old Dutch Burying Ground and the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow
photo by Rob Yasinsac
The burying ground in which the unfortunate Ichabod sought refuge is the yard of the Old Dutch Church, not the adjacent Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which had not been established at the time Irving wrote the Legend. The burying ground is of course the purported haunt of a certain headless Hessian, but also the resting place of local citizens who likely inspired Irving's characters of Katrina Van Tassel, Brom Bones, and others in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Purchase a copy of our Tales of the Old Dutch Burying Ground from Sleepy Hollow Gifts Online or at the museum shop at Philipsburg Manor. A fold-out map at the center of the book guides you through the churchyard.
"Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians
of those parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating the
floating facts concerning this spectre, allege that the body of the
trooper, having been buried in the church-yard, the ghost rides forth
to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head; and that the rushing
speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow, like a midnight
blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get back to
the church-yard before daybreak."
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery surrounds the Old Dutch Burying Ground.
Washington Irving is laid to rest in the southern end of the cemetery
in a plot overlooking the old church and its burying ground. Other famous
individuals buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery include Andrew Carnegie,
Walter Chrysler, William Rockefeller, and Elizabeth Arden. Pick up a
free map of the grounds at the cemetery office located about 1/4 mile
north of the Old Dutch Church on Route 9 (North Broadway).
"I
send you herewith a plan of a rural cemetery projected by some of the
worthies of Tarrytown, on the woody hills adjacent to the Sleepy Hollow
Church. I have no pecuniary interest in it, yet I hope it may succeed,
as it will keep that beautiful and umbrageous neighborhood sacred from
the anti-poetical and all-leveling axe. Besides, I trust that I shall
one day lay my bones there."
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 540 North Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591, www.sleepyhollowcemetery.org
Sunnyside
photo by Rob Yasinsac
Washington Irving’s meticulously restored home is filled with the author's possessions including his writing desk and books. Originally a Dutch farmer’s house, it is now a property of the non-profit Historic Hudson Valley and open for tours. Seasonal events are offered, such as candlelight tours at Christmas. Located on West Sunnyside Lane, off Route 9 (South Broadway), about 3-1/2 miles south of the Old Dutch Church.
West Sunnyside Lane, Tarrytown, NY 10591, 914-631-8200, www.hudsonvalley.org/sunnyside/index.htm
Patriots Park and the André Captors' monument
The marshy area where Ichabod first encountered the headless
horseman has long since been drained, but its stream still flows through
a park shared by the villages of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. A monument
marks the spot where, on September 23, 1780, John Paulding, David Williams,
and Isaac Van Wart captured British spy John André and exposed Benedict
Arnold's treasonous attempt to turn over West Point to the British.
At that same location Ichabod, too, met a fateful sentry. Today, beware
of sport utility vehicles of large dimensions rushing along Broadway.
"About
two hundred yards from the tree a small brook crossed the road, and
ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley’s
Swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over
this stream . . . It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate
André was captured, and under the covert of those chestnuts and
vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised him. . . .In the
dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, [Ichabod] beheld
something huge, misshapen and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered
up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the
traveler. . . He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and
mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. "
The park and monument are located on the west side of Route 9 (Broadway) at the border between Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.
Site of the Elizabeth Van Tassel house, later known as Mott
Tavern
There
is no way around this, so we may as well be frank: the location
of the Van Tassel homestead in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is
a sticky proposition. Van Tassels had long populated the
area by the time Washington Irving wrote The Legend, so there is reasonable
latitude in which to speculate whom, if any, may have been the models
for Baltus Van Tassel and his coquettish daughter Katrina. Historian
Edgar Mayhew Bacon, in his 1898 book Chronicles of Tarrytown and
Sleepy Hollow (Bacon
was also prescient; it would be another 98 years before the
village of North Tarrytown changed its name to Sleepy Hollow), attaches
Katrina Van Tassel to the Elizabeth Van Tassel house, a tavern before
and during the Revolutionary War. Bacon notes that Irving was a frequent
visitor at this old house "especially
during the time that his [Irving's] sister boarded there
with the Mott family." In their 1975 History
of the Tarrytowns,
Jeff Canning and Wally Buxton concur, adding that the house was part
of the 165 acre John Van Tassel farm. The former Elizabeth Van Tassel
house was located at what is now the northeast corner of Hamilton Place
and North Broadway in Tarrytown. The Landmark Condominium building presently
on the site was formerly the Frank R. Pierson School (ca.
1897), which itself was formerly the Washington Irving High School until
the 1920s when the school district build a new Washington Irving High
School at the corner of Franklin Street and South Broadway in Tarrytown.
Others place the setting of the Van Tassel homestead as far south as Irving's own home, Sunnyside. These likely derive their geography from Irving's sketch Wolfert's Roost in which the author resurrected his pen name of Geoffrey Crayon, used for fiction like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and the fictitious "historian" Diedrich Knickerbocker for one more tongue-in-cheek, irreverent episode in the history of the former Dutch colony of New Netherlands. In Wolfert's Roost Irving invents a mock-epic history for his own home, attaching it to his own The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as well as to a comic incident during the Revolutionary War. Irving would likely be amused that this tall tale still has a life of its own after 150 years.
Landmark Condominium, 18 North Broadway (1 block north of Main Street), Tarrytown, NY 10591
Philipsburg Manor
"Our
man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the smiles of all
the country damsels. How he would figure among them in the church-yard
. . . or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, along the banks of the
adjacent mill-pond; while the more bashful country bumpkins hung sheepishly
back, envying his superior elegance and address."
This is a living history museum where you can experience Sleepy Hollow's agrarian past. It is a restoration of the 17th century Dutch manor beside whose millpond Ichabod Crane strolled with fair companions. You may need to supply your own bevy of country damsels.
Route 9, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 www.hudsonvalley.org/philipsburg/index.html
Christ Episcopal Church 43 South Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591, 914-631-2074, |
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Zion Episcopal Church |
Headless Horseman Bridge, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
The
precise location of the old, timber bridge where Ichabod was unseated
by a pumpkin is lost to time but it would have been located east of the
current Route 9 bridge inside what is now Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. While
we are sorry you can't dash across the original, you are welcome to visit
the cemetery's own bridge across the Pocantico. It is on cemetery road
Sleepy Hollow Avenue about 0.3 mile inside the cemetery's south gate.
The bridge's rough-hewn boards clatter like hoofbeats under the wheels
of infrequent automobiles.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 540 North Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591, www.sleepyhollowcemetery.org
Headless Horseman Bridge, Route 9 (Broadway)
The current route of Broadway is west of the Old Dutch Church.
As Irving notes in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the old route
of the Albany post road was to the east of the church. The present bridge
over the Pocantico was constructed in 1912 by William Rockefeller.
"The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious awe, and
that may be the reason why the road has been altered of late years, so
as to approach the church by the border of the mill-pond."
Rockefeller State Park Preserve
If
the original route of Ichabod's flight from the headless horseman is
now too populated for your taste, step back in time courtesy of the Rockefeller
family. To the east of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, across the Old Croton
Aqueduct, Rockefeller State Park Preserve encompasses dense forest, rolling
pastures, and miles of unpaved carriage roads. In the gathering gloom
of some overcast autumn afternoon, you might just hear hoofbeats approaching
from behind. But don't panic—the state park allows equestrian access
to some trails. If you wish to make your own horseback ride through Sleepy
Hollow, there is horse trailer parking at the park's main entrance on
Route 117. There is pedestrian access to the park from the Old Croton
Aqueduct and Old Sleepy Hollow Road.
Route 117, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 914-631-1470, www.friendsrock.org, www.nysparks.state.ny.us
Gotham
Long before it acquired the nickname The Big Apple, Washington
Irving cheekily dubbed his hometown Gotham. Gotham was and is
a village in Nottinghamshire, England. In the Middle Ages its citizens
were the butt of many a joke about their alleged lack of intelligence,
although more than a few stories cast the inhabitant's odd behavior as
shrewdly calculated to shield the town from the onerous demands of an
unreasonable royalty. Far from taking offense at Irving's shot at their
legendary high opinion of themselves, subsequent generations of Manhattanites
have persistently revived the use of Irving's impudent reference to their
possibly feigned lunacy. Some may revel a bit in their ability to pull
one over on the unwary, but by and large the inhabitants welcome visitors.
Experience the madness for yourself. From either the Tarrytown or Philipse
Manor (Sleepy Hollow) stations Manhattan is about a 40 minute train ride.
You can drive there, of course, but as the "good citizens of the wonder
loving city of Gotham" (Salmagundi No. XIII) will tell you,
you would have to be crazy to risk the traffic and byzantine parking
regulations.
NYC and Company, Convention and Visitors Bureau, www.nycvisit.com
Ichabod Crane
The namesake for Irving's hapless schoolmaster is buried in a churchyard in Staten Island. Legend has it that Irving knew Crane from service during the War of 1812. Irving seems to have picked up only the name, not the character, of the Staten Islander. The character may have been based in part upon the career of Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Youngs, a resident of the Tarrytown area. After the revolution, Youngs became a schoolteacher, went on to study law, and was elected to state office—roughly the career path of the fictitious Ichabod Crane. Youngs was originally buried in the churchyard of Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow—the setting for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow—but was transferred to Ossining in 1851 when administrators of the fledgeling Dale Cemetery wanted an notable citizen to grace their new burying ground.
Asbury Methodist Cemetery, alternately referred to as Asbury Methodist Episcopal Churchyard, Northfield Methodist Episcopal Churchyard, and New Springville Cemetery. The cemetery surrounds the former Asbury Methodist Church, which is presently SonRise Faith Church. The marble Crane monument is located at the back of the section to the left of the church. The original inscription had been badly vandalized by the end of the 20th Century but has since been restored and reproduction inscriptions installed. 2000 Richmond Avenue (corner of Amsterdam Place), Staten Island, NY.
Dale
Cemetery. The Youngs monument can be difficult to find among the cemetery's
40 acres without a map. If the office is open, purchase a copy of their
guide book. 104 Havell Street, Ossining, NY, 10562, 914-941-1155.
Hudson Valley Writers' Center
Jump start your own writing career in the same locale that inspired Washington Irving. The center offers classes, workshops, and readings by emerging and established writers in the restored Philipse Manor train station.
300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591, 914-332-5953, www.writerscenter.org
Dark Shadows
photo by Rob Yasinsac, inset photo by Jim Logan
The headless horseman is not the only frightful phantom to grace the area. Fans of the 1960s television series Dark Shadows will recall that Lyndhurst in Tarrytown served as the Collinwood estate in the feature-length film House of Dark Shadows (1970). Sleepy Hollow Cemetery's receiving vault (inset image) made a cameo in the same film as the Collins family mausoleum. Lyndhurst, one of America's finest Gothic Revival mansions, is within walking distance of Washington Irving's Sunnyside by way of the Old Croton Aqueduct walking trail.
Lyndhurst, 635 South Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591, 914-631-4481, www.lyndhurst.org
Old Croton Aqueduct, www.aqueduct.org
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Copyright © 2006 Friends of the Old Dutch Burying Ground Inc., All Rights Reserved