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The Baychester Depot Ghost
Andrew J. Parker died “suddenly” at the age of 63 in September 1885 in the village of Pelham, NY. For most of his life, he worked as a chemist, and in Pelham, he had been the manager of the Neptune Powder Mill, a dynamite company. As an employee of a dynamite manufacturer, he lived much longer than anyone of that time would have figured; as it was a volatile and dangerous trade. But he was lucky to have survived and retired to spend time with his family. News reports at the time never explained exactly how Parker died, but not being blown to pieces was perhaps the most unexpected part…
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Philipsburg Manor
Drive North on Route 9 out of Sleepy Hollow and you’ll suddenly find yourself amidst trappings of a bygone era. An iconic white-washed stone building rests adjacent to a large and placid mill pond. Additional buildings, such as a mill and a barn linger nearby, framed by large picturesque trees. Squint and you might think you took a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong century. This is the remaining vestige of the early-18th century in Sleepy Hollow Country: Philipsburg Manor. In the 1680s, dutch immigrant, Frederick Philipse I had amassed nearly 52,000 acres of land on the eastern side of the Hudson River, bounded on the other edges…
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Rockefeller’s War on Snakes
“I will pay 25-cents for each snake killed on my estate. I desire to rid my land of these reptiles, and any one may enter the war of extermination.” JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER -The New York Times, June 12 1906. John D. Rockefeller declared war. A war on snakes. Reportedly afraid of the reptiles since his youth and unable to walk safely in portions of his estate, there had been no other explanation given for the public announcement of the need to exterminate the snakes on his large estate in Pocantico Hills, particularly the Buttermilk Hill area which is “the wildest in the county.” For weeks following the proclamation of war,…
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The Deaths of Buttermilk Hill
“Buttermilk Hill is the name of a desolate, rugged mountain, about a mile from Unionville Station, studded with a thick growth of young trees, underbrush, and rocks. It is about a half mile from the base to the top of the mountain, and to ascend it one must follow a lonesome, tortuous, rocky wood road, starting from the Sawmill River Road, which lies at the foot of the hill on the eastern side.” The New York Herald, Thursday September 1, 1881. “MURDERED IN THE WOODS” Something might be off about Buttermilk Hill. Today most people know of it as an area of scenic walking paths in Rockefeller State Park Preserve…
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John André’s Ghost
“Down the post road, on still autumn nights, belated wayfarers sometimes heard the sound of hoofs. A madly galloping horse seemed to approach, but no horse or horseman was visible to the keenest eyes…All agreed that the hoofbeats stopped as though the rider had reined in suddenly, and that they were never heard further south than the immense old tulip tree, known as André’s tree, that spread it’s gaunt ghost-like arms in the moonlight.” –Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, by Edgar Mayhew Bacon Two ghostly horsemen. One gallops headless out of the pages of Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the other rides alongside from the pages of history…
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The Capture of John André
“In the centre of the road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air. It was connected with the tragical story of the unfortunate André, who had been taken prisoner hard by; and was universally known by the name of Major André’s tree.” –The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving Looming in the background of Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is the historical capture of Major…
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Milton Minnerly, 1877.
Take a walk in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery amongst the tombstones. Wind your way along the ridge of the hill to take in the dramatic views. There are monuments all around you, but you find a sunny patch of grass with a rock angling down a slope like an old scar. It’s a nice place to rest, so you brush away some loose lichen, leaves, and pine needles that have settled into the cracks. Your fingertips find something else though, faint in the sandpaper surface, and different from the deep veins and crevices. It almost feels like letters. The sun and shadows hit just right to highlight a faint inscription in…
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The Mystery of the Woman in Black
“Tales of a mysterious woman haunting the streets late at night, dressed in black, with a veil over her face and a hand held under a shawl, have been told there since Monday night…The figure was seen coming from the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery one night. Another time it was in Beekman Avenue, and often in Beekman Walton’s yard. A heavy thunderstorm occured Tuesday night and the figure was out.” Nyack Evening Star, Monday January 30th, 1899. “Effigy of Woman” For a brief period in 1899, something other than the headless horseman haunted the streets of North Tarrytown, today known as Sleepy Hollow. A woman in black, shrouded, and face obscured,…
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The Ghosts of Raven Rock
“Nowhere in this part of the country are the ravens to be found, though it is thought that they may have been plentiful a century or more ago. The crows, who are known to be inveterate neighbors of their larger cousins, perhaps drove them out. Upon their exodus these birds of ill omen left their names in more than one lonely spot, to couple with dark associations. Raven Rock is a detached portion of the steep, rocky, eastern side of Buttermilk Hill, which a deep fissure has long separated from the mass, and the fragment, becoming independent territory, set up a mythology of its own. Not content with one legend,…
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The Spook Rock
“In the days before the railroad was built, the population of Tarrytown was small, and the majority of the inhabitants were farmers; good, plain, practical people, not given to romancing and the inveterate foes of novelty. Some elderly folk, whose memories take them back to the thirties, remember the story of the Spook Rock as it was transmitted to them from their parents and grandparents, which should satisfy any sceptic of its genuine antiquity. Not far from the cottage of Hulda, the witch, it stood; but it was an ancient landmark before Sleepy Hollow mothers ever used Hulda’s name to frighten their babies into obedience.” –Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow,…
