Sleepy Hollow Cemetery inSleepy Hollow, New York,[4] is a non-profit, non-sectarian burying ground of about 90 acres (36 ha).[5] It is thefinal resting place of numerous famous figures, includingWashington Irving, who was a cofounder of the establishment. Incorporated in 1849 as Tarrytown Cemetery, it was renamed Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in 1865.[6]
In 1847, theNew York State Legislature passed theRural Cemetery Act, which authorized commercial burial grounds inNew York. The law led to the burial of human remains becoming a commercial business for the first time, replacing the practice of burying the dead in churchyards or on private farmland. Almost immediately after that, a group of prominent local residents, headed by author Washington Irving and Capt.Jacob Storm initiated the building of a modern burial ground in theTarrytown area,[9][10] as the Burying Ground at the Old Dutch Church no longer had adequate burial space for the growing community.[11] Tarrytown Cemetery was incorporated on October 29, 1849. On April 11, 1865, it would be officially renamed Sleepy Hollow Cemetery—the name on which Washington Irving had insisted from the beginning, but was initially overruled.[6] The new cemetery began with 39 acres north of the church graveyard, subsequently growing by about 41 acres in 1886 and an additional 10 acres in 1890.[12][1]
It was designed as agarden—or rural—cemetery, a style that was popular in the United States and Europe during the mid-19th century. (Washington Irving was a strong proponent of the garden cemetery movement.) Jim Logan, superintendent of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, writes on his website,Sleepy Hollow Country: "Think of it as the Victorian version of therapeutic landscape architecture—a place where grief could unfold amid natural beauty rather than urban gloom."[6][13]
The building of this type of cemetery involved well-planned walkways and elaborately landscaped plantings of trees and shrubs.[14] The Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow area, with its rolling hills, old-growth trees, and the gently flowingPocantico River, was a perfect location for a garden cemetery. Before the widespread development ofpublic parks, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, like other garden cemeteries, provided a place for the public to enjoy outdoor recreation in a park-like setting. In the 21st century, it is still a popular spot for locals to take a nature walk.
Names of prominent local families are found on stone-fronted family vaults built into the hillsides in the older section of the cemetery, but most of the burials are family plots with multiple tombstones. In the northern section, on the higher elevations, there are numerous mausoleums and large plots with elaborate monuments of "many New York achievers"[15] of theGilded Age.
The cemetery's historicHillsideReceivingVault provided essential "cold storage" before the advent of modernsteam shovels andbackhoes. Built directly into a steep hillside, the solid masonry structure used the earth's natural insulation to hold bodies when the ground was too frozen for burial. It is a contributing structure to the cemetery's 2009 listing on the National Register of Historic Places.[16] The vault gained international fame as the crypt of Barnabas Collins in the 1970 filmHouse of Dark Shadows. No longer used for mass winter storage, it is part of official cemetery tours.
Purported "Headless Horseman" cemetery bridge. A popular feature is the cemetery’s rustic bridge over a Pocantico River ravine, near a small waterfall and the river’s natural Cascade Pool. Cemetery superintendent Jim Logan writes: "Visitors have long associated it with the famous bridge from Irving’s tale, though it’s a much later addition to the landscape. Still, there’s something fitting about it—a wooden span over running water, framed by autumn foliage, that captures the atmosphere of Irving’s story even if it wasn’t part of his original inspiration."[6][17]
The modestWashington Irving's gravestone (1859) is located in the Irving family plot, where his parents, brothers (includingPeter Irving), nephews, and nieces are also buried. According to his nephew and literary assistant, Pierre Munroe Irving, the author had selected the specific place next to his mother when visiting the cemetery several days before his death.[18] Creating a unique literary landmark, the author is buried close to the historicBurying Ground of theOld Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, where the graves of people who inspiredThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow characters are located.
The 1926 gravestone index,The Old Dutch Burying Ground of Sleepy Hollow, describes it as follows:[19]
On the Northern edge of the burying ground, overlooking his beloved .... Hollow, rest the remains of the gentle Washington Irving: the shrine of thousands of pilgrims from the distant places of the earth. Marked by no tawdry memorial of elaborate sculpture, a simple marble slab indicates the grave; a slab ingeniously fashioned, with rounded comers and edges designed to foil souvenir collectors who have carried off piece-meal two earlier stones.
The edifice is, indeed, the third iteration of the original grave marker; souvenir hunters chipped away at previous ones, which eventually had to be replaced.[8] (In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a common, though destructive, practice for tourists to chip off small pieces of the headstones of famous people as souvenirs.[20])
Irving's gravestone is the most visited place in the cemetery. In the words of local historianMarcius D. Raymond:[21]
Sleepy Hollow... The genius of Irving, whose remains, at his own request, rest within her soil, that sweet and gentle Father of American Literature, has made her name known and loved, as far and as widely as the English tongue is spoken.
Monumental Granite and Marble Works in North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow) that made tombstones for the cemetery (late 1800s)
Owen Jones Monument (1884)
John Hudson Hall Monument (1894)
Bronze Lady (1903)
Henry Villard Memorial (1904)
William Rockefeller Mausoleum (1920)
Andrew Carnegie gravesite (1923)
Helmsley Mausoleum (2007)
Northern section of the cemetery, with a hill crowned by William Rockefeller Mausoleum (2018)
Owen Johns Monument (1884) is a spectacularGothic Revival structure featuring elaborate carvings and a life-sized statue of Jones himself. (Jones was a prominent New York City merchant who operated "dry goods palaces," precursors todepartment stores, inManhattan.) The highly realistic marble sculpture captures the merchant's likeness with unusual detail for 19th-centuryfunerary art.
John Hudson Hall Monument (1894) is one of the most popular and visually striking monuments in the cemetery. Hall was a highly successful paper manufacturer, a developer of New York's elevated railroad system, and anart patron who amassed a large personal collection and commissioned the famous sculptorAugustus Saint-Gaudens to create his funerary monument.[24] It is a rare stone version of Saint-Gaudens' masterpiece,Amor Caritas (Angel of Charity), his vision of the ethereal female, which he modeled repeatedly between 1880 and 1898. A heroic-sized (larger than life-size) bronze version won the Grand Prize at the ParisExposition Universelle of 1900,[25] cementing Saint-Gaudens' reputation as America's premier sculptor. Because of its popularity, some 20 smaller-scale versions were produced by Saint-Gaudens and sold through high-end retail outlets such asTiffany & Co.[26] Most of them are now in museums, including theMetropolitan Museum of Art.[27] The face of the angel is modeled after the artist's longtime mistress and muse, Davida Johnson Clark.[28] In the Hall Memorial version, the angel is set into a massive granitepedestal featuring abas-relief portrait of Hall himself at the base.
While theRevolutionary Soldiers' Monument (1894)[29] is a simple granite obelisk, its location is significant: it was built on top of the cemetery's Battle Hill, which was a strategic local spot during theRevolutionary War, where alunette (orredoubt) had been located around 1779 to guard theAlbany Post Road crossing of the Pocantico River just south of the cemetery.[30] Battle Hill may have been the place whereHulda of Bohemia (c.1700-c.1777), the semi-legendary "witch" and Revolutionary War hero of Sleepy Hollow, was killed by British soldiers while protecting the localmilitia.[31][32] Funds for the monument were raised under the leadership ofMarcius D. Raymond, publisher of the localTarrytown Argus newspaper. It was erected specifically to honor the local veterans of the Revolution who are buried in the adjacentOld Dutch Burying Ground, which holds one of the highest concentrations of Revolutionary War veteran graves in the state of New York.[33] The October 19, 1894, dedication was a major event: crowds from New York City and the area arrived by trains and excursion boats, a parade came up Broadway, and two Navy cruisers in theTappan Zee provided a dramatic cannon salute.[34][35] Raymond later published a book detailing the celebration,[21] which also contains invaluable historical data on related Revolutionary War events and the families whose names are inscribed on the monument.
Recueillement, also known asBronze Lady (1903), is a mournful seated statue across from Gen.Samuel Russell Thomas's mausoleum, commissioned by his widow, Ann Porter Thomas, from the noted sculptorAndrew O'Connor. Many visitors and experts have praised the statue's life-like appearance and the "enchanting" quality of the bronze work. Others, including Thomas's widow, have felt disturbed by the statue's haunted, unsettling expression. The widow asked O'Connor to replace the statue's head; the sculptor, however, refused.[36] The statue has become a centerpiece of local legendry.[37][38][39] It is one of the most visited memorials in the cemetery.
Henry Villard Memorial (1904) was designed by the prominent architectural sculptorKarl Bitter for the gravesite of the journalist and financierHenry Villard. It is a rare and notable example of theArt Nouveau movement in American cemetery sculpture and in Americanfunerary art in general. The central life-size marble figure, titled "Labor at Rest," depicts a man resting against an anvil while holding a sledgehammer. This imagery reflects Villard's career as a railroad tycoon.
William Rockefeller Mausoleum (1920) was designed by architectWilliam Welles Bosworth, who later restored thePalace of Versailles, for the family ofWilliam Rockefeller Jr. Rockefeller commissioned the building after his wife of 56 years, Almira Geraldine Goodsell Rockefeller, died.[40] Its construction was a major local event; in 1922,The New York Times reported on the difficulty of moving a 32-ton block of granite (for the mausoleum's unique single-slab walkway) to the site.[41] TheNeoclassical tomb, withIonic columns and a pyramid-style roof, is over 35 feet across, more than 43 feet deep, and 38 feet 5 inches high.[42] Rockefeller bypassed the customary bold, high-profile placement of the family name above the entrance, opting instead for a subtle inscription on the bottom step of thestylobate. The mausoleum is situated on a hilltop plot[7] called Rockefeller Circle, less than a mile south of his (since demolished) extensive estate,Rockwood Hall, where he resided for 36 years and where he died. His sons,William Goodsell Rockefeller[40] andPercy Avery Rockefeller, are buried alongside their parents in the mausoleum vault. Other descendants, includingGeraldine Rockefeller Dodge andMarcellus Hartley Dodge Jr., are buried under uniform granite gravestones around the perimeter of the mausoleum.
Andrew Carnegie's gravestone (1923) was erected four years after his burial in the cemetery. In keeping with his wishes, it is intentionally simple, reflecting Carnegie's philosophy on wealth and philanthropy, expressed in his famous article "The Gospel of Wealth." The granite slab for the headstone was hewn from a quarry on theSkibo estate inScotland, Andrew Carnegie's home, and sent to sculptorGeorge Henry Paulin at his studio inGlasgow, where it was sculpted into aCeltic cross,[43] before being shipped to the United States. Surrounding his grave are the final resting places of his loyal household staff, including his butler, nurse, and chambermaid, all of whom were also born in Scotland.[44] It is common for visitors to leave coins on his gravestone as a tribute to his philanthropic legacy or for good fortune.[45]
The cemetery features numerous other noteworthy memorials associated with remarkable and poignant stories—such as the Crane Monument erected by Gertrude Beekman,[49] the grave ofMarcellus Hartley Dodge Jr.[50] at the foot of the William Rockefeller Mausoleum, and themurder–suicide story of theFord brothers, purposely buried in the same grave.[51]
Robert Havell, Jr. (1793–1878), British-American engraver who printed and colored John James Audubon's monumental Birds of America series, also painter in the style of theHudson River School
Harry Helmsley (1909–1997), real estate mogul who built a company that became one of the biggest property holders in the United States, and his wifeLeona Helmsley (1920–2007), in a mausoleum with a stained-glass panorama of the Manhattan skyline. Leona famously bequeathed $12 million to her dog.
William Howard Hoople (1868–1922), a leader of the nineteenth-century American Holiness movement; the co-founder of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, and one of the early leaders of theChurch of the Nazarene
Albert Lasker (1880–1952), pioneer of the American advertising industry, part owner of baseball team the Chicago Cubs, and wifeMary Lasker (1900–1994), an American health activist and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal
Several outdoor scenes from the feature filmHouse of Dark Shadows (1970) were filmed at the cemetery's receiving vault. The cemetery also served as a location for theRamones' 1989 music video "Pet Sematary".[57]
^abThe private Rockefeller burial ground atKykuit is reserved for members of theJohn D. Rockefeller Jr. branch of the family. Family members and descendants ofWilliam Rockefeller Jr. are buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, at the family plot anchored by the William Rockefeller Mausoleum.
^Adgent, Nancy (2018). "Augustus Saint Gaudens: Bringing the American Renaissance to the Cemetery".Markers: Annual Journal of the Association for Gravestone Studies.XXXIV: 19.
