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Sleepy Hollow Cemetery / NY

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Sleepy Hollow is a well known place, mainly due to the mysterious tale written down by Washington Irving. The little town close to Tarrytown in the State of New York has also one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the area, full of history and resting souls.


The official website of the cemetery writes the following about the history of the locality:
„The early pioneers selected a spot on the Pocantico, near its junction with the Hudson River, for the site of “The Old Dutch Church of the Manor of Phillipsburgh.” They were from Holland, and knew nothing of either the English language, laws or customs. They commenced burying their dead as early as 1650 in “The Old Dutch Grave Yard,” with which they surrounded the church building. Many of the headstones which they erected remain, but they bear inscriptions in a language which has become obsolete and is unknown in the locality. The site was so well selected that it has been accepted by the succeeding generations. The old graveyard has been superseded by a carefully conserved modern cemetery. Its grounds have been enlarged several times, till now they embrace nearly one hundred acres. Over thirty nine thousand dead rest in its soil. Pioneers, warriors, statesmen, scholars and men who were active in all of the various offices and affairs of life join in the throng. It has become indeed a city of the dead.
Washington Irving grave site showing original grave marker (middle row, 4th stone from tree), similar in size and style to others in the plot.
It has been an evolution. It needed a definite name, as it emerged from a country graveyard and become a carefully supervised cemetery. Washington Irving, formerly one of its Trustees, christened it “Sleepy Hollow,” writing that the name is “enough of itself to secure the patronage of all desirous of sleeping quietly in their graves.” “If ever I should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world, and its distractions, . . . I know of none more promising than this little valley.” Under this sweet name and in this little valley he has already slept quietly these many years. Other cemeteries have unwarrantedly adopted and are using the name, but the divine repose and restful quiet, which give it its only value, are exclusively the property of this locality. It has been the Mecca of many a pilgrimage already. Time will, by natural law, add more to its attractiveness. Death is stripped of many of its pangs when it transplants to such surroundings.“


This set here is actually the result of the attendence of my first photography workshop at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery back in 2010, one year before I took the respective night shots. So here are the results, I hope you like them.
Here is the link to the Slideshow.

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About Roman

Hobby photographer since 2005, Canon user. Mainly interested in Urban Exploring and Travel photography. Some first experiments with videos. On the professional side: PhD in Chemistry, working in the generic pharmaceutical industry. Living and working in Germany

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