Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow - History

History

Frederick Philipse I, Lord of Philipse Manor, owned the vast stretch of land spanning from Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx to the Croton River. After swearing allegiance and later being granted his Manorship from the English, he chose to establish his country seat at what was then known as North Tarrytown, where Pocantico Creek flowed into the Hudson River. A small community had already been established there when he arrived in 1683, with 50 burials in the small cemetery. He built the first church for them at the southern end of the cemetery.

Philipse's wife died in 1691, and he soon remarried. His second wife urged him to build a more permanent stone church for his tenants, and later in the decade he obliged her. A marble tablet in front of the church gives its completion date as 1699. It was placed in the 19th century, however, and it is seen as more likely that the church was finished by 1697. The congregation was organized that year, the same year the first pastor began serving.

The early history of the church and its members was recorded by Dirck Storm, in his book Het Notite Boeck der Christelyckes Kercke op de Manner of Philips Burgh. It continued to serve as the church of Philipse Manor through the Revolution, when the family's lands were confiscated by the state for siding with the Crown. At that time the special pews for the Lord of the Manor were removed and the plain oak benches for the tenants were replaced with pine pews.

Thereafter it continued without the patronage. Washington Irving, whose Sunnyside estate was a few miles to the south, made the church famous when he gave it prominent mention in his early 19th-century short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". He later gave yellow bricks from the church to outline the construction date on the wall above the door at Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor, New York.

In 1837 a fire damaged the church. During the repairs some significant changes were made to the building. The main entrance was moved from the south facade to its current location on the west, the windows and door entry were changed to the Gothic arches then in style and given brick surrounds. Inside, the north gallery was removed and the west one enlarged. The original ceiling beams and pulpit were replaced.

Sixty years later the church was renovated again for its bicentennial. That work reversed the 1837 renovations by restoring the original ceiling and reproducing the original pulpit. The Tarrytowns had grown through the 19th century, and a branch church had been built in Tarrytown to minister to the expanded congregation. Eventually that church became the main church, and the original building was used only for special occasions, a practice that continued until the most recent renovation in the 1990s. Currently, worship services are held from June through September.