• News article about Ghost of Grand View from New York Herald, August 27, 1908.
    Folklore,  Ghosts & Spooks,  Local History & Interest

    The Ghost of Grand View

    “It was not long after that when towels were mysteriously removed from the bathroom and left in fantastic shapes in various parts of the house. Whenever all the occupants left the house, things were sure to be turned topsyturvy. Clocks stopped, trunks were unlocked, furniture displaced, but there was never any evidence that these things had been done for the purpose of plunder.” The New York Herald, August 27th, 1908. Something strange was happening in the Blauvelt house in the summer of 1908. It began when Mrs. Blauvelt came home to find what appeared to her to be an elderly man sitting on her sofa in the sitting room. She…

  • The 2019 sandstone grave stone of the Edgar Mathew Bacon character Hulda, The Witch.
    Folklore,  Witches and Witchcraft

    Hulda the Witch

    “. . . in the days of our nation’s birth-throes he was a brave man who passed the cottage of the witch, even in the daytime. A hundred years ago the people took witches seriously.” –Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Until very recently, the written record of Sleepy Hollow’s reputed witch consisted entirely of seven short paragraphs in Edgar Mayhew Bacon’s 1897 book Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. Bacon, an author and historian, separates this tale from the eight historical chapters of Chronicles under a ninth chapter titled “Myths and Legends.” Whether he believed there any truth to the matter he does not say. It is striking, though,…

  • Folklore,  Ghosts & Spooks

    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,…

  • Ghosts & Spooks,  Folklore,  Vanished Sleepy Hollow

    Carl’s Mill

    “His greatest treasure of historic lore, however, was discovered in an old goblin-looking mill, situated among rocks and water-falls, with clanking wheels, and rushing streams, and all kinds of uncouth noises. A horse-shoe, nailed to the door to keep off witches and evil spirits, showed that this mill was subject to the awful visitations. As we approached it, an old negro thrust his head, all dabbled with flour, out of a hole above the water-wheel, and grinned, and rolled his eyes and looked like the very hobgoblin of the place. The illustrious Diedrich fixed upon him, at once, as the very one to give him that invaluable kind of information,…

  • An historic postcard of Captain Kidd's Rock on the shore of the Hudson River in Kingsland Point Park, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
    Local History & Interest,  Folklore,  Pirates of the Hudson,  Places & Landmarks

    Captain Kidd’s Rock

    “This has long been the name of a rock that is part of the river-wall on the outer side of Kingsland’s point. There is a summer-house built over the rock and if there were ever golden riches beneath it, or if there are treasures hidden there still, it is not (fortunately) the duty of a sober historian to tell.” –Chronicles of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, by Edgar Mayhew Bacon Kingsland Point, today a waterfront park in Sleepy Hollow, was once part of an estate owned by Ambrose Kingsland, a wealthy whale oil merchant who served one term as mayor of New York City. Kingsland also owned land nearby in Tarrytown that…