The Legend
The real Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow is a village on the east bank of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Manhattan. It was North Tarrytown until 1996. The church, the burying ground and Washington Irving’s grave are all there.
Is Sleepy Hollow a real place?
Yes. Sleepy Hollow is a village in Westchester County, New York, on the Hudson River about 25 miles north of Manhattan. Incorporated as North Tarrytown in 1874, it took the name Sleepy Hollow by vote in 1996. The Old Dutch Church of Washington Irving’s story still stands there, beside its burying ground and the cemetery where Irving is buried.
The village
Sleepy Hollow is a village on the east bank of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Manhattan. Its neighbor is Tarrytown, the market town Washington Irving spells Tarry Town in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The village was incorporated in 1874 as North Tarrytown and in 1996 voted to call itself Sleepy Hollow instead.
The name is older than the story. In 1655 the Dutch colonist Adriaen Van der Donck called the Pocantico River Slapershaven, Sleepers’ Haven. Sleepy Hollow is the later English form, first for the Pocantico valley.
The church and its burying ground
The Old Dutch Church stands on Route 9 in the north of the village. Frederick Philipse, lord of the Manor of Philipsburg, built it for his tenants. A first church went up about 1685; the stone church that stands today was finished before he died in 1702. The burying ground beside it is older still; settlers were burying their dead on the north bank of the Pocantico before Philipse built his mill.
This is the church of the story, whose walls Ichabod sees “dimly glaring under the trees” as he runs for the bridge. Its congregation still owns it. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, next door, is separate: 90 non-sectarian acres in use since 1849.
Irving on this ground
Irving knew the place before he wrote about it. He first saw the Van Tassel cottage on the river below Tarrytown at fifteen, and in the late 1790s he roamed the hollow with James K. Paulding. The story he wrote in England; it came out in 1820 in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.
In 1835 he bought that same cottage and remade it as Sunnyside. He lived there for the last 24 years of his life and died there on November 28, 1859. His grave is in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a few miles north.
What you can see today
The cemetery is open daily; you may walk or drive the grounds in visiting hours, and the office gives out a free map. Across the road is Philipsburg Manor, the mill and manor house on the Pocantico. Its guided tours tell the story of the enslaved people who ran the mill and the dairy. It opens on select dates from May to December. In the median of Route 9 between the manor and the church stands a bronze Headless Horseman in mid-gallop. Sunnyside, in Irvington to the south, gives 50-minute tours of Irving’s cottage from May to December.
Irving writes that over the stream by the church “was formerly thrown a wooden bridge,” and that the road was later moved to reach the church by the millpond. A bridge in the village was photographed as the Headless Horseman Bridge between 1910 and 1920; the Library of Congress keeps the negative.
In Irving’s words
Irving, on the Hudson and Tarry Town.
Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1820. The voice reading Irving in the films was designed for Sleepy Hollow with ElevenLabs. It is not a recording of any person. The whole story is free to read.
In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic.
On Roblox
In the game
The village in the game is the village of the story, as it might have stood in 1790. It has a sawpit, a covered bridge, lanterns with pumpkins beside them, an inn where old Gunpowder waits, and a statue in the square. By day you cover the bridge with planks, a bay at a time. At nightfall the bell rings and the Headless Horseman rides. Reach the covered bridge and you are safe. Irving’s bridge was a plain wooden one over the brook by the church; the covered bridge is ours. The game is coming to Roblox.
Keep reading
The questions beside this one.
Asked
What people ask about The real Sleepy Hollow
No. The village was incorporated as North Tarrytown in 1874 and voted to take the name Sleepy Hollow in 1996. The name itself is older than the village: a Dutch colonist called the Pocantico Slapershaven, Sleepers’ Haven, in 1655, and Irving used Sleepy Hollow for the valley.
Yes. The Old Dutch Church on Route 9 in Sleepy Hollow was built by Frederick Philipse for the tenants of his manor in the last years of the 1600s. Its burying ground on the north bank of the Pocantico is older than the church.
In Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, next to the Old Dutch Church. He died at Sunnyside, his house on the Hudson a few miles south, on November 28, 1859. The cemetery is open daily and gives out a free map at its office.
The bridge in the story was a wooden one over the brook by the church, and Irving already writes of it as a former bridge. A bridge in the village was photographed as the Headless Horseman Bridge between 1910 and 1920. The Horseman you can see today is a bronze statue in the median of Route 9.
Yes, on select dates from May to December, with timed tickets. Philipsburg Manor is across the road from the cemetery in Sleepy Hollow; Sunnyside is in Irvington, a few miles south.
On Roblox
The bell rings at nightfall.
Free to play. Nothing to buy right now. Alone or with friends.
Maturity: Mild
Violence (Repeated/Mild). Shown as Roblox shows it.
Ages 16+ for now
Roblox opens a new experience to age-checked players first. The Parents page has the detail.
5 badges
Every night you survive is kept on your name.