Tag Archives: Van Cortland
Sunset over the Hudson River
The Hudson Highlands from Scarborough Park, Westchester County, New York
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There are few places as evocative as the Hudson River Valley. The Hudson is a mighty river, a rival to the Mississippi in width and power, with amazing highlands that stretch along its banks. I found myself late one afternoon atop the hill in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, noticing the sun was almost gone, and remembered that I wanted a shot of the sunset over the river. My original plan was to drive up to the overlook on Bear Mountain, but it seems I’m forever tarrying in Sleepy Hollow. So as I raced up Route 9, I remembered the tiny park along the river in the village of Scarborough, and found myself wending my way to it. The wind was fierce that day, and the waves were nearly crashing against the stones of the shore, but I managed to snap a few shots before racing back to the car to warm my freezing fingers. I was fiddling with my phone, probably trying to set the GPS, without which I could never find my way through New York City to my home on Long Island, when I happened to glance up and notice the sky appeared to be on fire. Grabbing my camera, I dashed from the car, scrambled up the bank and managed to grab a half dozen shots before the fire in the sky burned away as quickly as it had come, leaving the night rising to meet the fading light.
Memorial in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, North Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York
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Another shot from Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Despite the way this looks, there is actually very little post processing done to the shot. I’ve never seen a sculpture which looked so much like a pencil sketch. Truly amazing.
William Rockefeller Mausoleum
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, North Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York
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The William Rockefeller Mausoleum in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, built by The Presbrey-Leland Company contains 11,000 feet of stone weighing over 881 tons, with a granite walk containing over 36 tons of stone. With blocks up to 16 inches thick, elaborately detailed on the inside in polished granite, the mausoleum has room for 20 bodies, including two large crypts in the center for Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller. Construction of the mausoleum in 1922 cost about a quarter million dollars, and was noted for the day when a thirty-two ton block of granite, thirty by fifteen feet was towed through the streets of North Tarrytown up into the cemetery.
Gurnee Mausoleum
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, North Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York
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In Sleepy Hollow, the dead outnumber the living. The population of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery outnumbers the living residents of the community by about a four to one ratio. Originally called Tarrytown Cemetery, the name was changed to honor the wishes of perhaps its most famous resident, Washington Irving. Other notables marking time there include Andrew Carnegie, Elizabeth Arden, Walter Chrysler – and names which ring of American aristocracy such as Rockefeller, Astor and Helmsley. But what is truly startling is a name such as Gurnee, which frankly means nothing to me, but who is immortalized in death with a structure larger than many of our homes today. Even with living neighbors like Bill Clinton and the remaining Rockefellers, it just goes to show that the real estate most dear in Sleepy Hollow still belongs to the dead.
