Jim Logan
Jim is superintendent of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where he has researched the cemetery’s history for more than 20 years. He draws on an extensive collection of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown historical resources for the material on Sleepy Hollow Country.
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The Witch of West Nyack
“This neighborhood has the doubtful honor of having been the scene of the last trial for witchcraft held in New York State, possibly the last among a so-called civilized people.” -The History of Rockland County, by Frank Bertangue Green Think of witches and Salem, Massachusetts comes to mind. But Sleepy Hollow Country has its own including Hulda the Witch of Sleepy Hollow and Jane Kanniff, the alleged witch of West Nyack. In the hamlet of West Nyack, six miles from Sleepy Hollow as the raven flies, is a historic marker at the site of the last witch trial in New York State. Some versions of her story use the name…
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Ghosts of St. Barnabas Church
“Most longtime parishioners at Irvington’s Church of St. Barnabas cheerfully accept the idea that there are ghosts that haunt the venerable Episcopal Church and its Rectory.” –The Hudson Independent, October 2, 2011. St. Barnabas Church in Irvington, New York, an Episcopal congregation, traces its history to the mid-1850s when The Reverend John McVickar purchased a 30-acre property north of Main Street for a summer residence. This was in part due to his friendship with author Washington Irving whose own home, Sunnyside, was less than a mile away. Around 1852 McVickar set about improving his property and the spiritual well-being of the community by launching the construction of a chapel and…
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UFOs Invade Tarrytown!
” . . . stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country . . .” –The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving The 1947 purported crash of an alien spacecraft in Roswell, New Mexico launched a national UFO frenzy. The Hudson Valley, no stranger to the marvelous and unexplained, quickly became a hot spot for unexplained flying craft. The hamlet of Pine Bush, about 60 miles north of Sleepy Hollow, seems to hold a special attraction for alien craft, with reported sightings from the 1950s through the present. While we aren’t breaking out the tinfoil hats just yet, we heartily…
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Ghosts of the Octagon House
“We have a ghost here, you know. Oh yes, we have. It followed us from 144 West 12th Street in New York City where we used to live. We’ve never seen it; it’s a fragrance that haunts the house.” -Carl Carmer This colorful house is an architectural and visual gem. With a string of occupants as colorful as the house itself, you would be perfectly reasonable to suspect a few lingered on after death. Before we get to the ghosts—and several owners have heartily embraced the presence of resident spirits—let’s take a brief look at its history and the characteristics that make it one-of-a-kind. The Armour-Stiner House is one of…
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Revenge of the Exploding Mosquitoes!
“Tarrytown, N. Y.—Mosquitoes in Cortlandt street, North Tarrytown have become gasoline drunkards and are terrorizing the town.” Nyack Evening Star, November 23, 1911 Imagine if you will, a flying menace. A tiny insect of prolific numbers, small enough to slip into any house, stealthy enough to land on your person without being noticed. Imagine the mayhem if that abundant pest were the common mosquito and it developed a taste for gasoline, turning itself into a flying Molotov cocktail. On October 15, 1911, James Brady of Cortlandt Street became the first victim of the North Tarrytown plague of exploding mosquitoes. News articles are mixed on the source of the gasoline, with…
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Holt-Lyon Company
Over the course of its existence, the Holt-Lyon Company manufactured a variety of hand-powered kitchen appliances like cream whips and egg beaters, bread slicers, and mayonnaise mixers. Holt-Lyon was incorporated around the year 1900 for capital of $20,000 (about $700,000 in 2023 dollars). The business was the joining of forces by Nelson Lyon, who had manufactured egg beaters near Albany, New York, with Thomas Holt, who held patents for improved egg beater designs. The partners leased a factory on Josephine Street on the Tarrytown, New York waterfront for their steam-powered equipment. Hand-powered egg beaters and similar hand-held mixers first appeared in US patents filed in the 1850s. Their innovative utility…
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Tarrytown Post Card Company
Unlike Russell & Lawrie in Tarrytown and Edward Farrington in North Tarrytown (today’s Sleepy Hollow), we know very little about the Tarrytown Post Card Company. It was apparently a single person operation by John D. Hazen, the music director at Hackley School and Miss Mason’s School “The Castle”. Hazen also appears to have been a local scoutmaster. View our full collection of cards at our Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown Post Card Gallery. Public Library, Tarrytown, N.Y. This half tone card has no numbering. Tarrytown Post Card Company. numbered P-60879. “Lyndhurst,” Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Finley J. Shepard, Tarrytown, N.Y. Helen Miller Gould Shepard (1868-1938) was an American philanthropist and daughter…
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Russell & Lawrie Post Cards
Founded by Frederick A. Russell and James T. Lawrie, the Russell & Lawrie drugstore originally occupied the first floor of the Washington Building at Main Street and Broadway in Tarrytown, a Tudor-style building that in 1894 replaced the pre-Revolutionary Edward Covenhoven Inn. The drugstore moved a couple blocks up Broadway after a fire swept the building in 1965. Like their crosstown rival, Farrington’s Drug Store, Russell & Lawrie published a series of souvenir postcards, some of which we collect here. They offer a glimpse of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow landmarks frozen at particular points in time. View our full collection of cards at our Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown Post Card Gallery.…
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Hettling Post Cards
Unlike Russell & Lawrie in Tarrytown and Edward Farrington in North Tarrytown (today’s Sleepy Hollow), we don’t know much about the E. Hettling operation. View our full collection of cards at our Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown Post Card Gallery. Rockwood Hall, Home of William Rockefeller. E. Hettling, publisher. The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, N.Y. Headless Horseman Bridge, Tarytown, N.Y. A sketch of the bridge published by E. Hettling, Tarrytown. New Bridge and Old Dutch Church, Tarrytown, N.Y. published by E. Hettling, Tarrytown. This is a tinted version of a photo of the Sleepy Hollow bridge also used by Barton & Spooner of Cornwall-on-Hudson.
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Farrington Post Cards
Like his rivals at Russell & Lawrie in Tarrytown, drugstore owner Edward Farrington had a line of souvenirs. Farrington’s Drug Store was located on the corner of Beekman Avenue and Washington Street in North Tarrytown. Farrington (or his printer) employed a numbering system for his images, typically a six-digit code on the image side of the card. In the mid-2000s former Rockefeller archivist Lucas Buresch cataloged Farrington’s “Lost Postcards of the Rockefeller Estate” with notes on each. View our full collection of cards at our Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown Post Card Gallery. Edward Farrington post card numbered 404,418 Orangerie, Estate of J. D. Rockefeller, Pocantico Hills, Tarrytown, N.Y. Winter Quarters for…
