Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow is a lot of fun. It’s a really small town with a wonderful feel to it. It’s very diverse, you’d think it was all white people in Westchester but it’s not, lots of hispanics, japanese and others.

October obviously has the most going on, but do check it out off season, like it’s Massachusetts counterpart, Salem, you really miss a lot of the feel of the beauty of the quaint town if you only come when all the tourists are there in the fall.

Andrew Carnegie, Wm. Rockefeller, Samuel Gompers, Washington Irving and others are buried in the old cemetary here.

Rockefeller and Irving have nearby homes, Rockefeller’s Estate is called Kykuit and Washington Irvings home is called Sunnyside, just south of here.

In Sleepy Hollow there is Philipsburg Manor, which is a 1700s era farm that you can see how things were done a long time ago.

If you go to 374 N Broadway, you can see the spot where The Headless Horseman Bridge stood that inspired Irving, but it’s a new bridge over the same spot of the river. A sculpture of the horseman stands nearby, ready to spook you.

South down N Broadway you will find The Horseman restaurant, which has some really good food.

There are a few great places to visit in Sleepy Hollow. Phillipsburg Manor is on Route 9 and has educational interactive tours and farm animals (my favorite part!). It is an old colonial working farm. Just up a little ways is an old church with a large cemetary that has interesting headstones. Route 9 has some great old trees forming a canopy over the road at this point as well. Looks like the road that the headless horseman chased Ichabod down. The neighborhood just across from the church is neat too, many interesting older homes and big, broad streets. There is also the a large park near the Sleepy Hollow train station that lets you get great views of the 1883 Lighthouse, the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee Bridge.

I don’t know if the following places are considered to be in Sleepy Hollow (I moved here a few months ago and I am unsure where the town lines are) but they are also great places to visit that are right near by. Rockefeller State Preserve is a huge park with numerous walking trails and great views of the Hudson. Kykuit is the near by Rockefeller Estate, Sunnyside is Washington Irvings home in Tarrytown and Lyndhurst is a beautiful old mansion in Tarrytown as well. There are numerous places to visit listed on www.hudsonvalley.org. There are great restaurants and shopping in downtown Tarrytown as well which is right next door to Sleepy Hollow.

Today! This is where I live!

The horseman was a Hessian mercenary sent to the shores by German princes to keep Americans under the yoke of England. But unlike his compatriots, who came for money, the horseman came for love of carnage.

The town itself is pretty run down and not that interesting, but it’s worth visiting just to see Sleepy Hollow cemetery and Washington Irving’s grave.