Sleepy Hollow and West Point
Car trip day. South to Sleepy Hollow – home and literary inspiration of many of Washington Irving’s stories.
First stop the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. This is a true New England Cemetery. Not a large lawn with orderly headstones. Acres and acres of hills and hollows. Maintained grass but also lots of old trees and rocky outcrops. There are headstones but they are arranged in family plots not necessarily lined up and they are very old. There are also many crypts and mausoleums of all shapes, styles, and sizes. On top of hills, built into hillsides, lined along road/paths like houses or alone in secluded areas. There is pretty much no open space. Graves of some form everywhere. New graves are sort of tucked in between existing graves or on fringes. This would be a very cool place at night. They do have nighttime tours once a week and in October they do the whole haunted graveyard thing. All the movie graveyards I have seen do not come close to the real thing.
Yes, Washington Irving is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in a family plot. The eye opening thing is that there are a number of other notable people buried there.
Probably the largest open space in whole cemetery. Note family plot outline in foreground and density of graves in distance.
Now the interesting inhabitants
Walter Chrysler
Graham family plot. Elizabeth N. Graham is better known as ‘Elizabeth Arden’.
Harry and Leona Helmsley
Andrew Carnegie. Note simple monument and simplicity of family plot. Also note head stones on right. Graves of members of Carnegies household staff, all of whom served the family for more than forty years.
Brother of John D.
Samuel Gompers, founder of A. F. of L.
Sleepy Hollow again.
Bridge and Hollow
North from the village of Sleepy Hollow, across the Hudson River, and on to West Point. Quiet little town that is home to the United States Military Academy. We had planned to take a tour of the academy but found that tours were canceled because a football game scheduled for Saturday was moved up to Friday. We were able to drive the campus on our own and see a lot even if we had no idea what we were seeing. Very pretty campus on a hillside overlooking the Hudson River.
Inside Cadet Chapel.
Main academic campus.
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