Sleepy Hollow

Back to New York... From Nyack, we drove back across the Tappan Zee Bridge because we wanted to tour Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate. We had planned on touring Kykuit on our way down from Hyde Park but Bocuse was unexpectedly closed on the day we had planned to visit. We had to shuffle our itinerary to accommodate it. Toll was $5 to drive across the Tappan Zee Bridge eastbound.

Our tour wasn't until 3:15 pm so we stopped in Sleepy Hollow, home to the legendary headless horseman.

The headless horseman is part of their street signs.

Main street in town--decorated for Halloween. There were many Halloween events, including an evening lantern tour of the cemetery, Horseman's Hallow at Phillipsburg Manor (haunted tour, including an appearance by the Headless Horseman), haunted hayrides and the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze with over 5000 hand-carved jack o'lanterns. If we were into Halloween, this would definitely be the town to experience it to the fullest.

The Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is the resting place of many noted figures, including Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), a Scottish-American industrialist, steel magnate and philanthropist. For a guy who was worth $310 billion, his gravesite is pretty modest. Then again, he did give away over 90% of his money while he was still alive. People leave coins at his gravesite as a sign of respect.

The Rockefeller mausoleum, on the other hand, is pretty elaborate. It's the largest mausoleum at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. William Rockefeller (1841-1922), his brother John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) and various family members are interred here. Legend has it that William actually built the mausoleum to provide a dignified resting place for his wife of 56 years, Almira. 

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is large and we got lost trying to drive around. We wanted to see Leona Helmsley's (1920-2007) gravesite but ran out of time. Supposedly, it has a stained-glass panorama of the Manhattan skyline. We wanted to see how garish it was. After all, she left $12 million to her dog.

We also didn't have enough time to tour the Union church in Pocantico Hills, just 2 miles away. It has the last work of art by Matisse and 9 windows by Chagall. Admission is $7.

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