In June 2002, I had the chance to drive to New York and look for the cemeteries my relatives are buried in. My first stop was is in "Sleepy Hollow". As we drove through town I spotted this Welcome sign and decided I needed a picture of it to add to my collection of photos.

This is the sign at the entrance of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. It is engraved on the stone wall as you are coming off Highway 9. The cemetery sits just behind the Old Dutch Church and Burying Grounds. The Hudson River flows just to the west and on through New York City to the ocean. This part of the river was called the Tappen Zee by the Dutch. It was in this setting that Washington Irving (1783-1859) wrote two of his most famous stories, "Rip van Winkle" and the "Headless Horseman" which both became literary classics.

It was renamed "Sleepy Hollow Cemetery" from "Tarrytown Cemetery" when Washington Irving suggested the more natural name in a letter to Mr. Lewis Gaylord Clark. Many other famous people are buried along the streets and among the trees of this hilly cemetery. There are the graves of the Andrew Carnegie family with the servants who were part of their household. Samuel Gompers, Major Bowes, William Rockefeller, Walter Chrysler, and many others are buried within its confines. The cemetery covers about 100 acres, and has over forty thousand burials within its grounds.

As you pass through the entrance, the office is in this building you see. There is a wealth of information here.

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