Sleepy Hollow, New York | |
|---|---|
 Philipsburg Manor House in the central part of Sleepy Hollow | |
 Seal | |
 Location of Sleepy Hollow, New York | |
| Coordinates:41°5′31″N73°51′52″W / 41.09194°N 73.86444°W /41.09194; -73.86444 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Westchester |
| Town | Mount Pleasant |
| Area | |
• Total | 5.20 sq mi (13.48 km2) |
| • Land | 2.24 sq mi (5.81 km2) |
| • Water | 2.96 sq mi (7.67 km2) |
| Elevation | 89 ft (27 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 9,986 |
| • Density | 4,451.8/sq mi (1,718.85/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| ZIP code | 10591 |
| Area code | 914 |
| FIPS code | 36-67638 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0958934 |
| Website | www |
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town ofMount Pleasant inWestchester County, New York, United States.
The village is located on the east bank of theHudson River, about 20 miles (32 km) north ofNew York City, and is served by thePhilipse Manor stop on theMetro-NorthHudson Line. To the south of Sleepy Hollow is the village ofTarrytown, and to the north and east are unincorporated parts of Mount Pleasant. The population of the village at the 2020 census was 9,986.[2]
Originally incorporated asNorth Tarrytown in the late 19th century as a way to draft off Tarrytown's success during theIndustrial Revolution, the village adopted its current name in 1996,[3] some three and a half centuries after the firstDutch settlers called the area "Slapershaven" or "Sleepers' Haven."[4]
The village is known internationally through "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", an 1820 short story byWashington Irving about the local area and its infamous specter, theHeadless Horseman. Irving lived in Tarrytown and is buried inSleepy Hollow Cemetery, where numerousother notable people are buried. 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".[5][6][7] Despite this designation, Sleepy Hollow has also been called "one of the safest places to live in the United States".[8]
The twosquare miles of land that would become Sleepy Hollow was originally occupied by theWecquaesgeek, a band ofMunseeLenape people.[9] Their fort and burying ground may have been located on the hillside where theOld Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow was to be built later.[10] In 1609,Henry Hudson claimed the Hudson Valley (known then as theTappan Zee) fortheNetherlands.[11] There was relative peace between theNative Americans and the Dutch until the mid-seventeenth century, and theDutch West India Company had been providing its investors with large land grants calledpatroonships to encourage settlement of theNew Netherland colony on lands bought from local Native American tribes along theEast Coast of what is now the United States.
Much of the land that would become Philipsburg Manor had previously belonged toAdriaen van der Donck, who had invested in such a patroonship before the Englishconquest of New Netherland in 1664. In 1672, merchantsFrederick Philipse, Thomas Delavall, and Thomas Lewis purchased from his widow's brother the first tracts of land in current-day northernYonkers.[12] Philipse made several additional purchases between 1680 and 1686 from theWiechquaeskeck andSintsink tribes, expanding the property to both the north and south. Philipse also bought out his partners' stakes during this time, enticing friends fromNew Amsterdam andLong 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 km2), comprising much of today's lowerWestchester County, Philipse was granted aroyal charter in 1693, creating theManor of Philipsburg and establishing him as first lord.[13]
Philipse established hiscountry seat at the mouth of thePocantico River, in the northern part of his manor, which would be called the Upper Mills. A small Dutch community had already been firmly established there when he arrived in 1683.[14] He built a mill and shipping depot, today part of thePhilipse Manor House historic site. A pious man, he was architect and financier of the settlement's stone church, known today as theOld Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, and was said to have built the pulpit with his own hands.[15] The church served successive lords and ladies of the manor and their tenant farmers (who were largely Dutch, French Huguenot, Swiss, and German immigrants[16]) until the outbreak of theAmerican Revolutionary War.
When Philipse died in 1702, the manor was divided between his son,Adolphus Philipse, and his grandson,Frederick Philipse II. Adolph received the Upper Mills property, which extended fromDobbs Ferry to the Croton River. Frederick II was given the Lower Mills at the confluence of theSaw Mill and Hudson Rivers, the two parcels being reunited on his uncle's death. His son,Frederick Philipse III, became the third lord of the manor in 1751.[13]
In the late 1790s, Washington Irving visited the Sleepy Hollow area with his friendJames K. Paulding, a local militiaman who in 1780 had previously helped capture British MajorJohn Andre in what is now known asPatriot's Park and thereby foiled the plans ofBenedict Arnold during theAmerican Revolutionary War.[17] 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 story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".
In 1779, Frederick III, aLoyalist, wasattainted for treason. Philipsburg Manor was confiscated and sold atpublic auction, split between 287 buyers, most of whom were Philipses’ tenant farmers who used the opportunity to buy the plots they worked. The largest tract of land (about 750 acres (300 ha)) was at the Upper Mills.[13] It was purchased by the New York merchant Gerard (sometimes spelled Gerardus) Garret Beekman Jr., a member of the prominentBeekman family. He operated his Upper Mills property as an agricultural enterprise consisting of small farms. Beekman's tenant farmers were veterans of the American Revolutionary War,[16] as was Beekman himself (he had served as a lieutenant in the1st New York Regiment).[18]
Gerard Beekman died in 1822, and his widow, Cornelia, laid out a portion of the estate into streets and sold building lots.[19] The development became known as Beekman Town (also spelled Beekmantown), with Beekman Street (soon to be upgraded to Beekman Avenue) as its main street.[20] Cornelia was a known figure among WestchesterPatriots[21] and a daughter ofPierre Van Cortlandt, the firstlieutenant governor of New York. She named one of the streets "Cortlandt" and another one "Clinton," afterGeorge Clinton, the firstgovernor of New York. By 1839, all lots were sold and released to the town of Mount Pleasant. Sometime after 1866, the waterfront tract at the foot of Beekman Avenue was bought byAmbrose Kingsland as part of hisHudson River estate.
Meanwhile, Beekman Town's closest neighbor,Tarrytown, was developing as a trading center on theAlbany Post Road and a commercial port on the Hudson River. TheIndustrial Revolution brought to it arailway station on theHudson 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 firstCroton 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[22] (as was the Hudson River Railroad[23]), many of whom settled in the village.[19]
Beekman Town incorporated in 1874 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 magazine publisher, developer, and automobile enthusiastJohn Brisben Walker acquired theStanley Brothers patents, bought the North Tarrytown segment of the formerAmbrose Kingsland estate, and built there a large factory, designed byMcKim, Mead & White, to produce steam-powered "Mobiles." In 1900, his Mobile Company of America went into operation at the foot of Beekman Avenue. Advertising claimed it to be the largest automobile factory in the world.[24]
Walker begansubdividing the northern part of his North Tarrytown property, attempting to capitalize on the site's location along theHudson River Railroad. One of his selling points for this residential development, called Philipse Manor in a confused reference to nearbyPhilipsburg Manor House,[25] 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 toWilliam Abraham Bell, who had invested in Walker’s automobile venture.[26] 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.[27][28] Wealthy New Yorkers started eagerly buying homes in Philipse Manor. 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 politicianJohn C. Frémont. Today, the two neighborhoods form the northern part of the village. ThePhilipse Manor station is on theNational Register of Historic Places.
In 1903, the closed automobile plant at the foot of Beekman Avenue was leased (and subsequently sold) toMaxwell-Briscoe, manufacturer of gasoline internal combustion automobiles. Destroyed in a fire in 1907, it was rebuilt and acquired byChevrolet in 1914-1915. In 1918, Chevrolet was integrated intoGeneral Motors (GM), and the plant became the GMNorth Tarrytown Assembly facility.
In the 1920s, a parcel of the former Ambrose Kingsland estate where Kingsland's opulent mansion once stood[29] was acquired by New York'sWestchester County and converted into a public park. It opened in 1926 and was named Kingsland Point Park.[30]
By the middle of the 20th century, North Tarrytown was a quintessentialfactory town, with the sprawling GM plant, or “the Shop” as the locals called it, being the village's single largest employer. The ranks of GM workers had swelled with French Canadian, Polish, and Slovak immigrants, followed by Cubans, Dominicans, Ecuadorians, and others.[16] The plant at its peak employed over 4,000 workers.
The industrial heyday of the Tarrytowns lasted until the1973–1975 recession in the United States. Manufacturing employment in the Tarrytowns started steadily declining, following a nationwide trend. TheDuracell (formerly,P. R. Mallory and Co) battery manufacturing facility on Elm Street closed in 1984. The North Tarrytown Assembly followed in 1996. Manufacturing buildings were demolished. (The two heavily polluted sites subsequently underwent a lengthy decontamination.[31][32])
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 ofJohn D. Rockefeller Jr. and other members of several generations of theRockefeller family.
In 1996, the same year General Motors closed its North Tarrytown operations, the village officially changed 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 ofMount 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.[33] These attempts did not succeed.
Some 20 years the GM plant closed, its former site was developed into a large residential community called Edge-on-Hudson. The site's extensive waterfront, which was inaccessible to the public for more than a century, is now part of theWestchester RiverWalk, offering breathtaking views of the Hudson River. Sleepy Hollow has become a major tourist destination, especially during theHalloween season, when tens of thousands of people flock to 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" ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow").
Sleepy Hollow is located at41°5′31″N73°51′52″W / 41.09194°N 73.86444°W /41.09194; -73.86444 (41.091998, −73.864361).[34] According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 5.1 square miles (13 km2), of which 2.3 square miles (6.0 km2) is land and 2.8 square miles (7.3 km2), or 55.58%, is water.[35]
The boundary between Tarrytown on the south and Sleepy Hollow on the north runs more or less along Andre Brook (formerly, Clark's Kill), which originates on Kykuit Hill above the villages and empties into the Hudson River near Tarrytown Boat Club. These days, the brook flows mostly throughculverts under streets and roadways, daylighting in a few places near theSleepy Hollow High School and inPatriot's Park.
The two villages share the postal (ZIP) code 10591.
Directly across the river from Sleepy Hollow is the village ofNyack in New York'sRockland County.
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 2,684 | — | |
| 1890 | 3,179 | 18.4% | |
| 1900 | 4,241 | 33.4% | |
| 1910 | 5,421 | 27.8% | |
| 1920 | 5,927 | 9.3% | |
| 1930 | 7,417 | 25.1% | |
| 1940 | 8,804 | 18.7% | |
| 1950 | 8,740 | −0.7% | |
| 1960 | 8,818 | 0.9% | |
| 1970 | 8,334 | −5.5% | |
| 1980 | 7,994 | −4.1% | |
| 1990 | 8,152 | 2.0% | |
| 2000 | 9,212 | 13.0% | |
| 2010 | 9,870 | 7.1% | |
| 2020 | 9,986 | 1.2% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[36] | |||
As of the census[37] 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 people per square mile (1,565.5 people/km2). There were 3,253 housing units at an average density of 1,431.8 per square mile (552.8/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 61.0%White, 6.2%African American, 0.8%Native American, 3.3%Asian, <0.1%Pacific Islander, 23.5% fromother races, and 5.2% from two or more races.Hispanic orLatino people of any race were 51.0% of the population, many of whom areEcuadorian,Dominican,Chilean, andPuerto Rican. Sleepy Hollow has one of the highest proportions of Ecuadorian American residents of any community nationwide, standing at 17.5% as of the 2010 census.
There were 3,181 households, out of which 36.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.5% were married couples living together, 13.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.89 and the average family size was 3.37.
In the village, the population was spread out, with 25.0% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 36.7% from 25 to 44, 18.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.9 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $54,201, and the median income for a family was $63,889. Males had a median income of $39,923 versus $32,146 for females. The per capita income for the village was $28,325. About 5.7% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.3% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.
The village is home to the aforementioned Philipsburg Manor House and the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, listed asNational Historic Landmarks. Local sites listed in theNational Register of Historic Places (NRHP) are theSleepy Hollow Cemetery;Patriot's Park; theEdward Harden Mansion, now serving as the administration building for thePublic Schools of the Tarrytowns; thePhilipse Manor Railroad Station, now repurposed by theHudson Valley Writers Center; theTarrytown Light; and theOld Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, segments of which run through Sleepy Hollow.
Just outside the village boundaries are several more sites listed in the NRHP, including the Rockefeller estate,Kykuit; theScarborough Historic District, withSleepy Hollow Country Club as its contributing property; and theUnion Church of Pocantico Hills.Rockefeller State Park Preserve (on theNew York State Register of Historic Places) abuts the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Part of the preserve containing the remnants ofWilliam Rockefeller Jr.'s estate,Rockwood Hall, lies just north of Sleepy Hollow'sPhelps Hospital. On the campus of the hospital, across the road from Rockwood Hall, sits the handsomeItalianate-style mansion, theJames House, one of a few remaining mid-19th-century mansions in the lowerHudson Valley. The granite andbrownstone mansion was built in 1851 for the son of copper magnateAnson Green Phelps. (It is now a rental venue.)
Worth visiting is also the village’s picturesque northernmost neighborhood, Sleepy Hollow Manor, with its meandering tree-lined streets and handsome houses built in the 1920s and 1930s on the former estate ofJohn C. Frémont. His now-updated house still overlooks the Hudson River there. Also of note is Kingsland Point Park with its massive Kidd's Rock (according to local lore, the boulder was a clandestine meeting place for Frederick Philipse andCaptain Kidd, aprivateer-turned-pirate and allegedly a business associate of Philipse).[38] OnBroadway (U.S. Route 9), near the Old Dutch Church, visitors can see an 18th-centurymilestone. Broadway was part of the historicAlbany Post Road, and milestones were placed along it to assist travelers with navigation and to help calculate postage delivery fees. Broadway, New York's longest street, ends less than a mile north of this stone marker, on the northern boundary of Sleepy Hollow.
As of 2014[update], the village's police department had 27 officers, four school crossing guards, and three civilian employees.[39]The village is also served by theNew York State Police andWestchester County Department of Public Safety.[40]Police officers from the villages of Sleepy Hollow andDobbs Ferry, the town ofGreenburgh, and the New York State Police make up a Marine / H.E.A.T. Unit.[41]As of 2006, police base salaries in Sleepy Hollow were low compared to other Westchester County forces, in part due to the lower tax base.[42]
The Sleepy Hollow Fire Department 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 2019, there were three engines, one tower ladder, one rescue, and other equipment. The fire department is run by volunteers and responds to over 300 calls each year. The localPhelps Hospital responds to hundreds of emergencies per year.[43]
Emergency medical services in Sleepy Hollow depend on volunteers assisted by paid staff. The Ambulance Corps has two basic life support ambulances. Mount Pleasant Paramedics provides advanced life support.[44]
Most of Sleepy Hollow is inUnion Free School District of the Tarrytowns while a portion is inPocantico Hills Central School District.[45]Sleepy Hollow High School is part of the Union Free School District of Tarrytowns.[46] The mascot of the school is theHeadless Horseman.[47] It is consistently ranked in the top 5-10% of high schools in New York State.[48]
The Warner Library, member ofWestchester 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 byWorcester Reed Warner, a mechanical engineer, wealthy industrialist, and philanthropist, and his wife Cornelia.[49] The library provides a wide variety of cultural and educational resources, from bilingual storytimes and thematic lectures to concerts and art workshops.
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:
Television shot on location in Sleepy Hollow includes:
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Sleepy Hollow travel guide from WikivoyageMunicipalities and communities ofWestchester County, New York,United States | ||
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