Village Center

Lore & Background

The two square miles of land that would become Sleepy Hollow belonged to the larger domain of the Wecquaesgeek, a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people. Their fort and burying ground may have been located on the hillside where the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow was to be built later. In 1609, Henry Hudson claimed the Hudson Valley, including the Tappan Zee area, for the Netherlands. There was relative peace between the Native Americans and the Dutch until the mid-17th century, and the Dutch West India Company had been providing its investors with large land grants called patroonships to encourage settlement of the New Netherland colony on lands bought from local Native American tribes along the East Coast of what is now the United States.

Reader's Guide

Philipse founded his country seat at the mouth of the Pocantico River, in the northern part of his manor, which would be called the Upper Mills. A small Dutch community had already been established there when he arrived in 1683. He built a gristmill and shipping depot, today part of the Philipse Manor House historic site. A pious man (and a carpenter by trade), he was architect and financier of the settlement's stone church, known today as the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, and was said to have built the pulpit with his own hands. The church served successive lords and ladies of the manor and their tenant farmers (who were largely Dutch, French Huguenot, Swiss, and German immigrants) until the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. When Philipse died in 1702, the manor was divided between his son, Adolphus Philipse, and his grandson, Frederick Philipse II. Adolphus received the Upper Mills property, which extended from Dobbs Ferry to the Croton River. Frederick II was given the Lower Mills at the confluence of the Saw Mill and Hudson Rivers. Adolphus transformed the Upper Mills into a major commercial operation and managed it for nearly 50 years. The complex then included a stone gristmill, a bakehouse, workshops for blacksmiths, carpenters, and coopers, and a wharf for exporting grain and cornmeal internationally and for importing foreign goods. It was surrounded by fields of grain, orchards, stands of timber, and stone quarries. The complex was largely operated by enslaved Africans. Slave quarters were installed by Adolphus about 90 feet from the main house. By the time of his death, twenty-three enslaved men, women, and children lived and worked at the manor. They are catalogued by name (and children, also with ages) in the 1750 probate inventory of his properties. As the most valuable 'chattel' (personal property), they are listed first - before cattle, furniture, and tools.

Did You Know?

• Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, lived in the area and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
• The Old Dutch Burying Ground holds one of the highest concentrations of Revolutionary War veteran graves in the state of New York.
• In 1786, the state of New York passed a law emancipating all enslaved people whose masters’ property had been confiscated, predating all other emancipation-related landmark events in the United States.