Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York metropolitan area. The village is located on the east bank of the Hudson River, approximately 28 mi north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by the Philipse Manor stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line. To the south of Sleepy Hollow is the village of Tarrytown, and to the north and east are unincorporated parts of Mount Pleasant.
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Overview
Overview
The population of the village at the 2020 census was 9,986. Originally incorporated as North Tarrytown in the late 19th century as a way to draft off Tarrytown's success during the Industrial Revolution, the village adopted its current name in 1996, some three and a half centuries after the first Dutch settlers called the area "Slapershaven" or "Sleepers' Harbor." The village is known internationally through The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an 1820 short story by Washington Irving about the local area and its infamous specter, the Headless Horseman. Irving lived in the area and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where numerous other notable people are buried, while real-life inspirations for his characters are interred in the adjacent Old Dutch Burying Ground. Owing to The Legend, as well as the village's roots in early American history and folklore, Sleepy Hollow is considered by some to be one of the "most haunted places in the world". Despite this designation, Sleepy Hollow has also been called "one of the safest places to live in the United States". Today, the village "thrives as a symbol of Americana, drawing tens of thousands each fall to its haunted hayrides, lantern-lit cemetery tours, pumpkin festivals, and theatrical reimaginings of Irving’s famous tale."
Key facts
Key facts
• Settlement Type — Village • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — United States • Subdivision Type1 — State • Subdivision Name1 — New York • Subdivision Type2 — County • Subdivision Name2 — Westchester • Subdivision Type3 — Town • Subdivision Name3 — Mount Pleasant • Unit Pref — Imperial • Area Total Km2 — 13.48 • Area Land Km2 — 5.81 • Area Water Km2 — 7.67 • Area Total Sq Mi — 5.21 • Area Land Sq Mi — 2.24 • Area Water Sq Mi — 2.96 • Population As Of — 2020 • Population Total — 9986 • Population Density Km2 — 1718.85 • Population Density Sq Mi — 4452.07 • Timezone — Eastern (EST) • Utc Offset — -5 • Timezone Dst — EDT • Utc Offset Dst — -4 • Elevation M — 27 • Elevation Ft — 89 • Postal Code Type — ZIP Code • Postal Code — 10591 • Area Code — 914 • Blank Name — FIPS code • Blank Info — 36-67638 • Blank1 Name — GNIS feature ID • Blank1 Info — 0958934 • Website — https: www.sleepyhollowny.gov/
History
History
• Illustration — Lower course of Pocantico River near Philipsburg Manor House – part of the area which the early Dutch colonists named "Slapershaven," or "Sleepers' Haven." The name was later Anglicized as “Sleepy Hollow.” • Illustration — Philipsburg Manor House at the Upper Mills The two square miles of land that would become Sleepy Hollow belonged to the larger domain of the Wecquaesgeek, a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people. Their fort and burying ground may have been located on the hillside where the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow was to be built later. In 1609, Henry Hudson claimed the Hudson Valley, including the Tappan Zee area, for the Netherlands. There was relative peace between the Native Americans and the Dutch until the mid-17th century, and the Dutch West India Company had been providing its investors with large land grants called patroonships to encourage settlement of the New Netherland colony on lands bought from local Native American tribes along the East Coast of what is now the United States.
The Upper Mills
The Upper Mills
Much of the land that would become Philipsburg Manor had previously belonged to Adriaen van der Donck, who had invested in such a patroonship before the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664. In 1672, merchants Frederick Philipse (or Vredryk Flypse), Thomas Delavall, and Thomas Lewis purchased from his widow's brother the first tracts of land in current-day northern Yonkers. Philipse made several additional purchases between 1680 and 1686 from the Wecquaesgeek and Sintsink tribes, expanding the property to both the north and south. Philipse also bought out his partners' stakes during this time, enticing friends from New Amsterdam and Long Island to move with him with the promise of free land and limited taxes. The manor grew to around 52,000 acres (21,000 ha) or about 81 sq mi (210 km 2), comprising much of today's lower Westchester County. Philipse was granted a royal charter in 1693, creating the Manor of Philipsburg and establishing him as first lord of the manor. • Illustration — Settlement, which would become the village of Sleepy Hollow, appears on this 1814 map as Philipsburg. Philipse founded his country seat at the mouth of the Pocantico River, in the northern part of his manor, which would be called the Upper Mills. A small Dutch community had already been established there when he arrived in 1683. He built a gristmill and shipping depot, today part of the Philipse Manor House historic site. A pious man (and a carpenter by trade), he was architect and financier of the settlement's stone church, known today as the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, and was said to have built the pulpit with his own hands. The church served successive lords and ladies of the manor and their tenant farmers (who were largely Dutch, French Huguenot, Swiss, and German immigrants) until the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. When Philipse died in 1702, the manor was divided between his son, Adolphus Philipse, and his grandson, Frederick Philipse II. Adolphus received the Upper Mills property, which extended from Dobbs Ferry to the Croton River. Frederick II was given the Lower Mills at the confluence of the Saw Mill and Hudson Rivers. Adolphus transformed the Upper Mills into a major commercial operation and managed it for nearly 50 years. The complex then included a stone gristmill, a bakehouse, workshops for blacksmiths, carpenters, and coopers, and a wharf for exporting grain and cornmeal internationally and for importing foreign goods. It was surrounded by fields of grain, orchards, stands of timber, and stone quarries. The complex was largely operated by enslaved Africans. Slave quarters were installed by Adolphus about 90 feet from the main house. By the time of his death, twenty-three enslaved men, women, and children lived and worked at the manor. They are catalogued by name (and children, also with ages) in the 1750 probate inventory of his properties. As the most valuable "chattel" (personal property), they are listed first - before cattle, furniture, and tools. Adolphus's nephew, Frederick Philipse III, became the third lord of the manor upon his uncle's death. He did not live at the modest Upper Mills house, choosing the manor house at the Lower Mills (now Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site) as his primary country estate and developing it into a grand Georgian-style mansion suitable for a man of his status. The Upper Mills main house, gristmill, surrounding buildings, ponds, fields, woods, and a wharf on the Hudson River (that is, everything related to the large-scale production and sale of flour, dairy products, timber, and other goods) were leased by Philipse to members of prominent local landowning families, first Josiah Martling (from 1752 to 1761) and then William Pugsley (from 1761 till after the American Revolutionary War). It is the area of this leaseholding that would become the core of the present-day village of Sleepy Hollow. During the American Revolutionary War, the Upper Mills area was situated within the Neutral Ground, an unprotected buffer zone between British-controlled territory to the south and American lines to the north. Numerous local histories and scholarly articles document the hardships faced by residents in the neutral ground, who were subjected to devastating raids from both sides. Their level of desperation is well illustrated by the oft-quoted description, “They feared everybody whom they saw.” Knowing the terrain well, many local residents served as crucial scouts, guides, and foragers for the Continental Army in the infamous neutral ground. The Old Dutch Burying Ground, the area's oldest cemetery, holds one of the highest concentrations of Revolutionary War veteran graves in the state of New York. In the late 1790s, Washington Irving visited the Sleepy Hollow area with his local friend James K. Paulding, a Revolutionary War militiaman who in 1780 had helped capture British Major John André in what is now known as Patriot's Park and thereby foiled the plans of Benedict Arnold. Together they explored the area, hunting, fishing and talking with the local folk. The visits of Irving—and the local folklore and ghost tales he heard while there—were immortalized in the enduringly popular story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Beekman Town
Beekman Town
• Illustration — Carl's Mill on the Pocantico River, Sleepy Hollow by William Rickarby Miller (1851), depicting one of the early landmarks of the Sleepy Hollow area; it vanished before 1893. In Wolfert's Roost, Washington Irving writes: "In a remote part of the Hollow, where the Pocantico forced its way down rugged rocks, stood Carl's mill, the haunted house of the neighborhood." In 1779, Frederick Philipse III, the last lord of Philipsburg Manor and a staunch Loyalist, was attainted for treason by New York's revolutionary government. Philipsburg Manor was confiscated, split into about 300 lots, and then sold at public auction. Most of the buyers were Philipse’s tenant farmers who used the opportunity to buy the small plots they worked. A much larger Upper Mills property, about 750 acre, was purchased by the New York merchant Gerard (Gerardus) Garret Beekman Jr. There were no more enslaved people on the land — in 1786, the state of New York passed a law emancipating all enslaved people whose masters’ property had been confiscated; the law predated all other emancipation-related landmark events in the United States. Beekman used the property as farmland; his tenant farmers were veterans of the American Revolutionary War, as was Beekman himself. Ironically, the first American ancestors of both Frederick III, a Loyalist, and Gerard Beekman, a Patriot who acquired his confiscated land, reportedly arrived in the New World on the same ship. Beekman later expanded his property to nearly 900 acres. He died in 1822, and his widow, Cornelia, laid out the central portion of the estate into streets and sold building lots. The development eventually became known as Beekman Town (also spelled Beekmantown), with Beekman Street, soon to be upgraded to Beekman Avenue, as its main street. The street follows the route of the old “road to landing;” the latter was an important local shipyard, “where many vessels were built... with timber cut in the dense forests of the Mill Woods.” Cornelia was a well-known figure among the Westchester Patriots and the daughter of Pierre Van Cortlandt, the first lieutenant governor of New York. She named one of the streets "Cortlandt" and another "Clinton," after George Clinton, the first governor of New York and later vice president of the United States. She donated a plot at the top of Beekman Street, a triangular island where the flagpole and the village clock stand today, for "the public use forever." By 1839, all the lots had been sold and released to the town of Mount Pleasant. In the 1860s, the undeveloped waterfront tract of Beekman's property was bought by Ambrose Kingsland in addition to his 1850s estate further south. • Illustration — Croton Aqueduct weir near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery • Illustration — Detailed Beers map1868 map of Tarrytown and Beekman Town from Frederick W. Beers's Atlas of New York and Vicinity Meanwhile, Beekman Town's closest neighbor, Tarrytown, was developing as a trading center on the Albany Post Road and a commercial port on the Hudson River. The Industrial Revolution brought to it a railway station on the Hudson River Railroad, industrial mills, banks, and throngs of new people. Eventually, the industrial boom started spilling over into Beekman Town. Constructed between 1837 and 1842, the first Croton Aqueduct, New York City’s original water supply system, passed through Beekman Town as part of its route to the city. It was built primarily by Irish immigrants (as was the Hudson River Railroad), many of whom settled in the village. Washington Irving wrote to his friends that aqueduct builders claimed that on their walks back from taverns in the night, they saw headless apparitions around Sleepy Hollow. Before and during the U.S. Civil War, the Underground Railroad ran through the neighboring Tarrytown. Tarrytown's famous Foster Memorial AME Zion Church served as a vital Underground Railroad stop. Known as the “Freedom Church," it provided food and shelter to escaped slaves en route to Canada. Company H of the 32nd New York Infantry Regiment that served in the Union Army during the Civil War was composed exclusively of volunteers from the Tarrytown area, including Beekmantown. They fought in the First Battle of Bull Run, the Peninsular Campaign, and the Battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Chancellorsville; and their letters home were often published in local newspapers. Many of them are buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where the Civil War Soldiers Monument was erected in 1890 in their honor. Its granite base is topped by a 7-foot-6-inch bronze statue of a Union infantry soldier standing at "parade rest"; bronze plaques on the base list some 240 names.
North Tarrytown
North Tarrytown
• Illustration — 1910 postcard depicting Beekman Avenue • Illustration — 2025 view from the same location. Most houses on Beekman Avenue, built during the industrial boom of the late 1800s-early 1900s, have survived urban renewal of the 1960s-1970s, when other parts of the village’s business district were rebuilt. Beekman Town's post office opened in 1871. In 1874, the village incorporated as North Tarrytown, using the recognizable name of its commercially successful neighbor to the south. Italian, German, and Eastern European immigrants began settling in the Tarrytowns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to open stores and shops and join the industrial workforce. North Tarrytown began its association with the automobile industry in 1899, when "Renaissance man" John Brisben Walker (who at the time owned The Cosmopolitan magazine and lived in nearby Irvington) acquired the Stanley Brothers steam-car patents. He bought part of the former Ambrose Kingsland estate in North Tarrytown and built there a large factory, designed by McKim, Mead & White, to produce steam-powered "Mobiles." In 1900, his Mobile Company of America went into operation at the foot of Beekman Avenue. When the first Mobile was completed, approximately 180 men worked in the new factory. Walker began subdividing the northern part of his North Tarrytown property, attempting to capitalize on the site's location along the Hudson River Railroad. One of his selling points for this residential development, called Philipse Manor in a confused reference to nearby Philipsburg Manor House, was the rail access, but this failed to materialize, and Walker's Philipse Manor Land Company floundered. The Mobile Company of America also failed: steam-powered carriages proved to be inferior to gasoline internal combustion vehicles. The heavily indebted Walker had to sell his North Tarrytown properties to William Abraham Bell, who had invested in Walker’s automobile venture. Bell, with his extensive experience in railroad development, not only continued the residential construction at Philipse Manor but also made the rail service possible by building the station and presenting it to the railroad. Wealthy New Yorkers started eagerly buying homes in the Philipse ManorPhilipse Manor neighborhood. A second residential neighborhood, Sleepy Hollow Manor, was developed in the vicinity of the station in the 1920s, on the former estate of renowned explorer and politician John C. Frémont. Today, the two neighborhoods form the northern part of the village. The Philipse Manor station is on the National Register of Historic Places. A parcel of the former Ambrose Kingsland estate where Kingsland's opulent mansion once stood was acquired by New York's Westchester County in 1924 and converted into a public park. It opened in 1926 and was named Kingsland Point ParkKingsland Point Park. • Illustration — Van Tassel Apartments in 2025 • Illustration — Bas-relief medallions at the entrance of Van Tassel Apartments, featuring Henry Hudson and Katrina Van Tassel In 1903, the closed automobile plant at the foot of Beekman Avenue was leased (and subsequently sold) to Maxwell-Briscoe, manufacturer of gasoline internal combustion automobiles. Destroyed in a fire in 1907, it was rebuilt and acquired by Chevrolet in 1914-1915. In 1918, Chevrolet was integrated into General Motors, and the plant became the GM North Tarrytown Assembly facility. To alleviate housing shortage for workers of the expanding plant, John D. Rockefeller Jr. (whose estate was two miles from North Tarrytown) conceived and financed the construction of a large housing cooperative on Beekman Avenue. Completed in 1929, the five-story Van Tassel Apartments complex, arranged around a large courtyard, is a prime example of early garden apartment architecture. Bricks for the building were imported from the Netherlands, and its design embraces the area's Dutch heritage. The main entrance is flanked by bas-relief medallions featuring explorer Henry Hudson and Katrina Van Tassel, the building's literary namesake from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Other bas-reliefs on the building depict scenes from Dutch colonial history. (The idea for the building's name and the bas reliefs belonged to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Rockefeller's wife.) The building was known for its high-quality construction and luxury (for the time) amenities, such as radio antennas and kitchens with electric refrigerators, gas ranges, and dumbwaiters. To this day, the Van Tassel is still the largest single residential building in Sleepy Hollow by unit count. By the 1940s, the historic Upper Mills complex with its gristmill and wharf was long gone. Only the main house remained, significantly altered by several generations of the Beekman family and the later owners, including the Broadway star Elsie Janis. In 1940, John D. Rockefeller Jr. purchased the property to preserve and restore it. After several major restorations, the rebuilt site would become the present-day Philipsburg Manor House living-history museum, designated as a National Historic Landmark. • Illustration — Postcard depicting the two main divisions of the North Tarrytown plant in the 1920s. The lower part of Beekman Avenue is bottom right. The Pocantico Bay (in the center) would be later completely filled in. By the middle of the 20th century, North Tarrytown was a quintessential factory town. The sprawling GM plant, or “the Shop” as the locals called it, was by far the village's (and the whole region's) largest employer. The GM ranks had swelled with African American workers as well as French Canadian, Polish, and Slovak immigrants, followed by Cubans, Dominicans, Ecuadorians, and others. The plant at its peak employed some 5,000 people. It worked around the clock, running three shifts. Everybody in the village knew the schedule of shift changes, because all roads would be clogged by cars coming to and from the plant. The plant also altered the geography of the village: its 1920s expansions involved rerouting the lower Pocantico River north of the site; and later, the plant completed the filling-in of the Pocantico Bay, a process started in the 1840s to support the construction of the Hudson River Railroad. That is why the Hudson River coastline in Sleepy Hollow looks very different today from how it looked on early maps and photographs. • Illustration — Partially redeveloped site of North Tarrytown Assembly in 2020. In the background: residential community Ichabod's Landing, built in 2006-2007, and Tappan Zee Bridge. • Illustration — Barnhart Park on Andrews Lane occupies part of the site of a P.R. Mallory and Co. (later, Duracell) battery manufacturing facility, which closed in 1984 The industrial heyday of the Tarrytowns lasted until the 1973–1975 recession in the United States. Manufacturing employment in the Tarrytowns started steadily declining, following a nationwide trend. The Duracell (formerly, P. R. Mallory and Co) battery manufacturing facility on Elm Street closed in 1984. The North Tarrytown Assembly followed in 1996. When the last vehicle rolled off the line at the end of June 1996, it concluded "the run of the longest continuously operating manufacturing facility in the GM family." Within years, manufacturing buildings were demolished. (The heavily polluted sites subsequently underwent a lengthy decontamination.)
The Village of Sleepy Hollow
The Village of Sleepy Hollow
• Illustration — Sleepy Hollow Village Hall, with a stained glass window featuring the Headless Horseman With its days as a factory town over, North Tarrytown began reconnecting with, and drawing upon, its storied history, literary heritage, and natural beauty of its surroundings. Luckily, much of its historic and natural sites survived the industrial era, largely through the restoration and preservation efforts of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and other members of several generations of the Rockefeller family. In 1996, the same year General Motors closed its North Tarrytown operations, the village voted to officially change its name to the historical name of the area immortalized in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The idea of Sleepy Hollow disaffiliating from the town of Mount Pleasant has been raised periodically (most notably in the mid-1970s and again around 2007 by longtime mayor Philip Zegarelli) often as a way to consolidate services and save money by eliminating one layer of government. These attempts did not succeed. After years of site decontamination and re-zoning, the former GM site was developed into several residential communities, the largest of which is Edge-on-Hudson. It is a village-within-a-village, with more than 1,100 residential units, that range from affordable housing and rental apartments to condominium buildings and luxury townhomes. Its street names, such as Legend Drive and Horseman Boulevard, commemorate Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and its large DeCicco's supermarket hosts an exhibit of memorabilia from the 1999 movie Sleepy Hollow. The former GM plant's waterfront, which was inaccessible to the public for more than a century, is now part of Westchester RiverWalk. Sleepy Hollow has become a tourist destination, especially during the Halloween season, when tens of thousands of people visit the village, drawn by its myths, legends and historic sites. In the words of Washington Irving, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie.
Geography
Geography
Sleepy Hollow is located at (41.091998, −73.864361). According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 5.1 sqmi, of which 2.3 sqmi is land and 2.8 sqmi, or 55.58%, is water. • Illustration — Andre Brook in Patriot's Park The boundary between Tarrytown on the south and Sleepy Hollow on the north runs more or less along Andre Brook (formerly, Clark's Kill). Since Tarrytown is part of the town of Greenburgh, and Sleepy Hollow is part of the town of Mount Pleasant, Andre Brook also forms the boundary between these towns. The brook originates on Kykuit Hill above the villages and empties into the Hudson River at Tarrytown Bay, near Tarrytown Boat Club. These days, the brook flows mostly through culverts under streets and roadways, daylighting in a few places near the Sleepy Hollow High School and in Patriot's Park. The two villages share the postal (ZIP) code 10591. Directly across the river from Sleepy Hollow is the village of Nyack in New York's Rockland County.
Demographics
Demographics
As of the census of 2010, there were 9,870 people, 3,181 households, and 2,239 families residing in the village. The population density was 4,054.7 /mi2. There were 3,253 housing units at an average density of 1,431.8 /mi2. The racial makeup of the village was 61.0% White, 6.2% African American, 0.8% Native American, 3.3% Asian, The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions: stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.
Emergency services
Emergency services
• Illustration — Rescue Hose Company No. 1, 11 Lawrence Ave., organized following the "Great Book Bindery Fire" of 1887. This fire station is famous for its door. • Illustration — Tower Ladder 38 at SHFD Central Fire Headquarters, 28 Beekman Ave. As of 2025, the village's police department had 24 officers, six school crossing guards, and 10 civilian employees. The village is also served by the New York State Police and Westchester County Department of Public Safety. The Westchester County Marine Unit provides police coverage and services along the Westchester County side of the Hudson River. The Sleepy Hollow Fire Department (SHFD) began with organization of the North Tarrytown Fire Patrol on May 26, 1876. Within 25 years it had grown to five companies in three fire stations. As of 2025, there were three engines, one tower ladder, one rescue, two fireboats and other equipment. The fire department is run by volunteers and responds to over 300 calls each year. Emergency medical services in Sleepy Hollow depend on volunteers assisted by paid staff. The Ambulance Corps has two basic life support ambulances and an EMT fly-car. Mount Pleasant Paramedics provides advanced life support. The award-winning Emergency Department of the local Phelps Hospital sees more than 28,000 patient visits annually.
Education
Education
Sleepy Hollow is in Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns. Sleepy Hollow High School is consistently ranked in the top 5-10% of high schools in New York State. The school's mascot is the Headless Horseman. Younger students attend John Paulding School for prekindergarten and kindergarten, W. L. Morse School for first and second grades, and Washington Irving Intermediate School for grades three through five. The Warner Library, member of Westchester Library System, is located on North Broadway just south of Patriot's Park where Tarrytown ends and Sleepy Hollow begins. The library has served both villages since 1929. It was built and gifted to the two communities by Worcester Reed Warner, a mechanical engineer, industrialist, and philanthropist, and his wife Cornelia.
In popular culture
In popular culture
Sleepy Hollow has been used as a setting or filming location for numerous media works, including films, games, literature, motion pictures, and television productions, including: • Illustration — Washington Irving's headstone in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery • Literature • Sleepy Hollow is the setting of Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), its many adaptations in other media, and its major characters, Ichabod Crane and The Headless Horseman. • Films • The Headless Horseman (1922) • The Headless Horseman (1934) • The Curse of the Cat People (1944) • The second segment of Walt Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) • The Scarlet Coat (1955), partially about American Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold's associate John Andre's pivotal real-life capture in the village • the adaptation of the Dark Shadows television series, House of Dark Shadows (1970) • Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995) • Sidney Lumet's Gloria remake (1999) • The Thomas Crown Affair remake (1999) • Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999), shot primarily in England • The Family Man (2000) • Super Troopers (2001) • Lord of War (2005) • Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006) • Why Stop Now (2012) • The English Teacher (2013) • The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow (2013) • the Stephen King adaptation A Good Marriage (2014) • the adaptation of The Girl on the Train (2016) • The Dinner (2017) • The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), filmed primarily in and around Northwell Health's Phelps Memorial Hospital Center • Wonderstruck (2017) • The Netflix Halloween film The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022), which substitutes the Headless Horseman legend with the lore of Stingy Jack in a thinly veiled contemporary Sleepy Hollow, refers to the "safest small city in America" distinction.; • Games • One of the locations in Magicland Dizzy is named after the village (1990). • Sleepy Hollow is a location in the game Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014). • Television • "The Headless Horseman of Halloween" episode of The Scooby Doo Show (1976) • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980), TV movie starring Jeff Goldblum, Paul Sand, and Meg Foster. • The four-season Fox series Sleepy Hollow, though set in and around the village through the centuries, greatly expanded its population to 144,000, as indicated by a sign at the beginning of the pilot episode. Most of the series was filmed in North Carolina and Georgia, though several aerial shots of the actual village and surrounding region are incorporated into the series. • The Elsbeth episode "Ick, a Bod" takes place in Sleepy Hollow where Elsbeth Tascione is sent to investigate the beheading of a resident. Television shot on location in Sleepy Hollow includes: • The Ramones' music video for the song "Pet Sematary" was shot in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. • The "Tale of the Midnight Ride" episode of the Nickelodeon series Are You Afraid of the Dark? • Retired Olympic decathlete and television personality Caitlyn Jenner, who attended Sleepy Hollow High School, led TV journalist Diane Sawyer on a tour of the village and neighboring Tarrytown during her landmark coming-out interview on 20/20 in 2015. • An episode of the HGTV series Property Brothers during its Westchester-dedicated season • The HBO series Divorce starring Sarah Jessica Parker • The "Two Boats and a Helicopter" episode of the HBO series The Leftovers • The Amazon Prime Video series Sneaky Pete • The Hulu series The Path • An episode of the Travel Channel/Food Channel series Man v. Food • The Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora • The FX series Pose • The Netflix revival of the series Tales of the City • An episode of the CBS series The Blacklist • An episode of the AMC series TURN: Washington's Spies • The Netflix series Zero Day starring Robert De Niro • The Amazon Prime Video reboot of Dexter
Notable people
Notable people
• Bob Akin (1936–2002), business executive, journalist, television commentator and champion sports car racing driver • Fay Baker (1917–1987), actress and author • Kathleen Beller, actress • David Bromberg, string instrumentalist, vocalist, and band leader • Ana Cabrera, television journalist • Clarence Clough Buel (1850–1933), editor and author • Keith Hamilton Cobb, actor best known for The Young and the Restless • Sam Coffey, professional soccer player for the Portland Thorns and the United States Women's National Team • Vincent Desiderio, realist painter • Karen Finley, performance artist • John C. Frémont (1813-1890), U.S. Army Major-General, explorer, and politician • Josh Hammer, political commentator, attorney, and columnist • Elsie Janis (1889–1956), singer, songwriter, actress, and screenwriter • Mondaire Jones, former U.S. Representative of NY-17 • Tom Keene (1896–1963), actor best known for King Vidor's film classic Our Daily Bread and Ed Wood's film Plan 9 from Outer Space • Karl Knortz (1841–1918), German-American author and champion of American literature • Joseph L. Levesque, former President of Niagara University • Joan Lorring (1926–2014), Academy Award-nominated actress and singer • Ted Mack (1904–1976), radio and television host best known for The Original Amateur Hour • Cyrus Margono, professional soccer player • Ralph G. Martin (1920–2013), author and journalist • Donald Moffat (1930–2018), British actor • Frank Murphy (1876-1912), Major League Baseball player • Eric Paschall, NBA basketball player • Adam Savage, co-host of the television show MythBusters • Gregg L. Semenza, Nobel Prize-awarded physician, researcher, and professor • Tony Taylor, NBA basketball player
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Sleepy Hollow, New York, revision 1367712029 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.United States Census Bureau. ArcGIS REST Services Directory.
- 2.Westchester County Municipal Tax Parcel Viewer / Sleepy Hollow. Westchester County GIS.
- 3.QuickFacts Sleepy Hollow village, New York. United States Census Bureau.
- 4.Berger, Joseph. North Tarrytown Votes to Pursue Its Future as Sleepy Hollow. The New York Times. December 11, 1996.
- 5.Barrett, Seaman. Just Where Was That "Sleepy Hollow," Actually?. The Hudson Independent. October 3, 2017.
- 6.Newton-Matza, M. Historic Sites and Landmarks That Shaped America [2 volumes]: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero. Bloomsbury Publishing. 519. 2016. 978-1-61069-750-7.
- 7.Hoeller, Sophie-Claire. The 6 Most Haunted Towns in the World. Thrillist. October 28, 2014.
- 8.Summers, Ken. Phantom Ships, Headless Skeletons, and Weeping Spirits: Investigating the Real Ghosts of New York's Sleepy Hollow. Week In Weird. October 13, 2014.
- 9.The Sleepy Hollow Hauntings. Haunted Places to Go.
- 10.Sleepy Hollow Named Safest Small 'City' in the U.S. July 11, 2021.
- 11.Kreitner, Richard. How Much Do You Know About the History of Sleepy Hollow?. Westchester Magazine. September 25, 2025.
- 12.History of the Village. Village of Sleepy Hollow.
- 13.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 12. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 14.Middleton, Simon. Conflict and Commerce: The Rise and Fall of New Netherland. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
- 15.Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow by Edgar Mayhew Bacon. The Knickerbocker Press. (1900), p. 5.
- 16.Maika, Dennis J. (2005). "Philipsburg Manor". Encyclopedia of the State of New York, First ed. (Peter Eisenstadt, ed.). Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p. 1199.
- 17.NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM: Sleepy Hollow Church. NPGallery Digital Archive / National Register of Historic Places.
- 18.According to the village historian Henry Steiner, it has been suggested there may have been an even earlier mill and pond on this site. (Steiner, Henry (1998) The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books, p. 84)
- 19.Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Famous Americans: Biography of Frederick Philipse: "...He worked at the carpenter's trade for several years, aided in building the Old Dutch church, and is said to have made the pulpit with his own hands.
- 20.Thematic Survey of Dutch Heritage Resources in the Greater Hudson Valley. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. 41. 2021.
- 21.Tenant farmers' houses had been on their small plots spread across the massive estate. They paid their rent in part by the grain they produced and were bound to bring all their grain to the Upper Mills gristmill for grinding.
- 22.Which Mill is Which? Telling Philipse Manor Hall and Philipsburg Manor Apart. Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site.
- 23.Historical Description: Phillipsburg Manor. Hudson River Valley Institute.
- 24.NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM: Philipsburg Manor. NPGallery Digital Asset Management System.
- 25.Adolph Philipse estate records. NYPL Digital Collections.
- 26.Adolph Philipse’s 1750 probate inventory. People Not Property / Historic Hudson Valley.
- 27.In the late 18th century, the Lower Mills area was often referred to as "Philipse's."
- 28.The Martlings were early Dutch settlers and influential members of the area community. One of the Martling family members, blacksmith Abraham Martling, is believed to be the historical inspiration for the character Brom Bones in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. His grave in the Old Dutch Burying Ground is located just several feet away from that of Catriena Ecker Van Tassel, whose name Irving borrowed for Katrina Van Tassel. Names of several Martling family members are engraved on the Revolutionary Soldiers' Monument in the adjacent Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
- 29.William Pugsley came from a large Westchester Quaker family associated with, among other things, Pugsley Park in Peekskill, Pugsley House in Ossining, Pugsley Hollow inNew Rochelle, and Pugsley Avenue in The Bronx. He died in 1786, shortly after he sold his lease to Beekman, and is buried in the Old Dutch Burying Ground. Many of his relatives were Loyalists, who joined the "Loyalist exodus" to Canada after the British defeat in the American Revolution. There, they and other refugees from New England and New York founded the community of Philipsburg, Quebec. Premier of Canada’s province of New Brunswick, William Pugsley, was a descendant of theirs.
- 30.Where Was the Philipsburg Proclamation Issued?. Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site. September 1, 2023.
- 31.Upper Mill Deed. Westchester County Archives.
- 32.Osborn, David. The Revolutionary War 'neutral ground' of Westchester County. St. Paul's National Historic Site, NPS. 2014.
- 33.Browne, George W. The Role of the Westchester Guides During the American Revolution. University of Rhode Island. 1962. 10.23860/the.
- 34.The Revolutionary War in Westchester County: Digital Resources. Westchester County Historical Society.
- 35.Old Dutch Church and Burying Ground. I LOVE NY / New York Department of Economic Development.
- 36.Egner Gruber, Katherine. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Hidden History in an American Ghost Story. American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. October 23, 2024.
- 37.Carl's Mill, Tarrytown, New York. New-York Historical Society.
- 38.Irving, Washington. Wolfert's roost : and other papers, now first collected. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1865.
- 39.Bielinski, Stefan. An American Loyalist: The Ordeal of Frederick Philipse III. Hudson River Valley Institute (HRVI). New York State Museum. 31. 1976.
- 40.Commissioners of Forfeiture Proceedings, 1784-1786. Westchester County Archives.
- 41.[see Public Lands Law, L. 1786, Ch. 58, Sections 1-15, 22, 28-31]. Laws of the State of New York passed at the sessions of the Legislature 1785-1788. 2. 1886.
- 42.Freeing Enslaved Africans. Enslaved Africans' Rain Garden.
- 43.Revolutionary War Soldiers Burial Index (p.4). Westchester County Historical Society.
- 44.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 21. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 45.Map of Beekman Farm in Mount Pleasant. Westchester County Archives. c. 1848.
- 46.Map of Beekmantown in Mount Pleasant. Westchester County Archives. 1836–1839.
- 47.Village of Sleepy Hollow Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, Section II. Inventory and Analysis. New York State Department of State. 1997.
- 48.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 24–25. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 49.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 24, 88. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 50.Its location is now a small waterfront park, Horan's Landing, near the Hudson River viewing platform.
- 51.Germain, Edward St. Cornelia Beekman Biography Women of the Revolution. AmericanRevolution.org.
- 52.McKito, Valerie H. From Loyalists to Loyal Citizens: The DePeyster Family of New York. SUNY Press. 75–76. 10 August 2015. 978-1-4384-5812-0.
- 53.McKito, Valerie H. From Loyalists to Loyal Citizens: The DePeyster Family of New York. SUNY Press. 75–76. August 10, 2015. 978-1-4384-5812-0.
- 54.The location of Philipsburg Manor House and surrounding property on the uppermost section of the map is marked as "J. Storm." Hudson River boat captain Jacob Storm, who owned the property at the time, was a descendant of Dirck Storm, historian of the Old Dutch Church and friend of Frederick Philipse, the first lord of Philipsburg Manor.
- 55.History. Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct.
- 56.Vigilante, Ami. 9 Immigrant-Built Industries that Shaped the Hudson Valley. Reher Center.
- 57.Aqueduct met New York City's need for clean water in 1842. American Society of Civil Engineers.
- 58.Rappole, George H. The Old Croton Aqueduct. IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology. 4. 1. 15–25. 1978.
- 59.Riley Wentzler and Felicia Barber. A Different Kind of Rebel: Greenburgh's Contributions to the Underground Railroad. River Journal. January 2, 2019.
- 60.32nd Infantry Regiment. New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center.
- 61.Westchester County Civil War Monuments (Part Two). New York Almanack.
- 62.Our Union Soldiers Historical Marker. Historical Marker Database.
- 63.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 88. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 64.This naming proved to be confusing, as it would often cause errors in books, articles, and even on picture postcards, with writers and publishers mistakenly labeling places in North Tarrytown as being in Tarrytown.
- 65.Sojak, Notary. G. Washington Slept Here: A Sleepy Hollow Local History: The Merchants of Main Street. Independently published. 2021. 979-8468602317.
- 66.Morrison History: John Brisben Walker. Morrison Historical Society. November 6, 2010.
- 67.1892 Joseph R. Bien map, Villages of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown, at the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.
- 68.Foster, Kit. The Stanley Steamer: America's Legendary Steam Car. Stanley Museum Inc. 2004. 978-1886727076.
- 69.Miller, Richard. Steam Starts the 1899 Auto Industry. River Journal. May 16, 2008.
- 70.The actual Philipse Manor house is in Yonkers, some to the south (both manor houses served the original Philipsburg Manor).
- 71.B'way reprise for Rocawear. New York Post. October 28, 2009.
- 72.Tutt Library, Colorado College. William A. Bell Papers.
- 73.Kuhn, Robert. National Register of Historic Places nomination, Philipse Manor Railroad Station. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. January 1991.
- 74.Past present at Pokahoe. WAG MAGAZINE. November 2, 2015.
- 75.Denton, Sally. Passion and Principle, John and Jessie Fremont, The Couple whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America. Bloomsbury. 347. 2007. 978-1-59691-019-5.
- 76.Seaman, Barrett. A Trove of Kingsland Treasure Returns To Sleepy Hollow. The Hudson Independent. August 31, 2025.
- 77.Kingsland Point Park. parks.westchestergov.com.
- 78.ROCKEFELLER APARTMENTS AT NORTH TARRYTOWN TO BE OPENED THIS WEEK; Store Rent for Maintenance. The New York Times.
- 79.Madsen, Krista. Warner Oral Histories: Life in the Van Tassel. The Hudson Independent - Westchester's Rivertowns News. May 4, 2016.
- 80.A New Look at an Anglo-Dutch Plantation on the Hudson: The Philipsburg Manor Reinterpretation Project. Antiques and The Arts Weekly. June 1, 2004.
- 81.Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Judy Richardson. Civil Rights Movement Archive. February 2007.
- 82.Minchin, Timothy J. “A Gallant Fight”: The UAW and the 1970 General Motors Strike. International Review of Social History. 68. 1. 41–73. April 26, 2022. 0020-8590.
- 83.Mcdade, Jared. 25 Years After GM's Closure, Sleepy Hollow Welcomes New Developments. Westchester Magazine. September 17, 2021.
- 84.And that is why the "point" in the name of Kingsland Point Park, which used to be a promontory in Ambrose Kingsland's time, no longer looks like a point.
- 85.Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Duracell Lithium Systems Division, in Sleepy Hollow, New York. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
- 86.Former GM North Tarrytown West Parcel Cleanup Certified. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Fact Sheet. April 2014.
- 87.It was the second referendum; in the first one, in 1988, the name change was rejected.
- 88.Two Villages, One Project, Another Lawsuit. The New York Times. October 28, 2007.
- 89.Westchester RiverWalk / Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow. Westchester County Department of Planning.
- 90.Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ibiblio. 6. 1820.
- 91.United States Census Bureau. US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990. February 12, 2011.
- 92.CensusViewer. Sleepy Hollow, NY Population - Census 2010 and 2000 Interactive Map, Demographics, Statistics, Quick Facts.
- 93.The common and official local spelling for the stream in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow is "Andre Brook" (without the accent).
- 94.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 14. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 95.Here's How We're Mobilizing for Sustainable Transport in Sleepy Hollow. Sustainable Sleepy Hollow.
- 96.New Resident (Start Here!). Village of Tarrytown.
- 97.Census.gov. Census of Population and Housing.
- 98.United States Census Bureau. U.S. Census website.
- 99.Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Westchester County Historical Society. January 1, 2003. 978-0915585144.
- 100.RockefellerTrailMap.pdf. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
- 101.James House. Kamen Tall Architects P.C.
- 102.Drawing - Webb-Fremont House. Westchester County Historical Society.
- 103.NPC1487 - Bathhouse at Kingsland Point Park (drawing). Westchester County Archives.
- 104.NPC5391 - Kingsland Point bathhouse (photo). Westchester County Archives.
- 105.According to The Greatest Street in the World: The Story of Broadway (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1911) by Stephen Jenkins, Philipse was one of the backers of Captain Kidd in colonialGovernor Bellomont's time, and Lord Bellomont once remarked: "If the coffers of Frederick Philipse were searched, Captain Kidd's missing treasures could easily be found." Due to Bellomont's accusations, Philipse was ordered removed from the governor's executive council (where he had served from 1691 to 1698), but he preempted this order by resigning.
- 106.It is debated if this milestone is in its original location or was moved there in the 19th century from a place somewhat to the south. Most surviving 18th-century mile markers on the historic Albany Post Road are not in their original locations; at some point in their history, they were moved to protected settings, such as the grounds of neighboring historic sites, or embedded in retaining walls.
- 107.PLANS FREMONT FOUNTAIN.; William Rockefeller Will Place It on the Albany Post Road. The New York Times. July 12, 1913.
- 108.Postcard - Cold spring fountain with plaque for John C. Fremont, gift of William Rockefeller. Westchester County Historical Society.
- 109.Steiner, Henry. The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown. Heritage Books. 52. 1998. 978-0-7884-0961-5.
- 110.Kruk, Jonathan. Legends and Lore of Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley. The History Press. July 21, 2011. 978-1596297982.
- 111.Logan, Jim. The Deaths of Buttermilk Hill. Sleepy Hollow Country.
- 112.Logan, Jim. The Spook Rock. Sleepy Hollow Country.
- 113.Leary, Robyn. GHOST STORIES; The Other Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The New York Times. October 29, 2000.
- 114.Kramer, Peter D. Sleepy Hollow's lesser known ghost story: The Curse of the Bronze Lady in New York. USA Today. October 25, 2021.
- 115.The Bronze Lady of Sleepy Hollow. NY Ghosts.
- 116.Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ibiblio. 6-7. 1820.
- 117.Unlike modern firehouses with motorized overhead doors, this station retains traditional manual-apparatus bay doors, which are a rare surviving feature of early firehouse design. In the era of open-cab fire engines, the "chauffeur" (driver) could open these doors without leaving the driver's seat by using a long pull-cord.
- 118.Police. Village of Sleepy Hollow.
- 119.Marine Unit. Westchester County Department of Public Safety.
- 120.The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown described, in detail, the strength of fire departments in each of the two villages at the turn of the 20th century.
- 121.Fire Department. Village of Sleepy Hollow.
- 122.Sleepy Hollow Fire Department.
- 123.Ambulance Corp. Village of Sleepy Hollow.
- 124.Northwell Phelps Hospital Emergency Department. Emergency Nurses Association Hall of Honor. August 1, 2024.
- 125.U.S. Census Bureau. 2020 Census – School District Reference Map: Westchester County, NY.
- 126.Search for Public Schools - School Detail for SLEEPY HOLLOW HIGH SCHOOL. nces.ed.gov.
- 127.Sleepy Hollow One Of Hudson Valley's Best High Schools For 2017: US News. Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow, NY Patch. 2017-04-25.
- 128.Newport, Kyle. Sleepy Hollow High School Has the Nation's Scariest Mascot. Bleacher Report.
- 129.Mancuso, Anne. Sleepy Hollow: Surrounded by History, and Legends. The New York Times. September 28, 2016.
- 130.Miller, Richard. They Gave Us the Warner Library. River Journal Online. 2010-11-19.
- 131.Stephen King's 'A Good Marriage' Filming in Sleepy Hollow, NY This Month. OnLocationVacations.com. May 20, 2013.
- 132.Malone, Mike. Hit series 'Man v. Food' takes on Westchester. Lohud.com. August 15, 2017.
- 133.Frémont's estate, Rancho Pokahoe, and surrounding farmland became part of North Tarrytown when the village was incorporated in 1874.
- 134.Rosenberg, Merri. IN THE SCHOOLS; Lessons in Civics, And Indian Point. The New York Times. November 21, 2004.
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