October 23, 2011 — I just left my heart in Sleepy Hollow. Better than leaving my head, I guess.
A few years ago, I wrote a 3,500-word piece on Sleepy Hollow, NY, and its neighbor village of Tarrytown for O.T.I.S. In it, I explained that the town was the place where Washington Irving lived and was buried. That it was here he set his famous story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow using the actual landmarks of the area. And that the town has fully embraced its patron author, headless spook, and important place in American literary history.
However, upon my recent visit this past weekend, I realized that I just didn’t do the village justice. The two-part piece explained why the place has images of decapitated horse jockeys everywhere you look and pointed out the best Washington Irving and Legend sites, but it didn’t quite capture how magnificent the area looks in Autumn, or how much every house and business downtown embraces Halloween as a whole, or just how splendid the historic estates in the area are.
And I’m going to accept that I’m just not up to the task to get out of the task this time. However, below are a few pictures we took on this trip. More pictures of the actual famous landmarks of the town can be found in the above-criticized article.
If you’ve never been to Sleepy Hollow in Autumn, you really need to head there. Just don’t expect to bring yours back.
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| Philipsburg Manor |
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| Tarrytown's Lyndhurst mansion has been hosting a scarecrow event on its premises throughout October. |
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| Said Lyndhurst mansion. |
