Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, National Historic cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, United States.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is a burial ground spread across 90 acres (36 hectares) with winding paths, stone mausoleums, and statues set among hills close to the Hudson River in New York State. The site holds numerous gravesites, including historic monuments and family plots beneath mature trees.
Local residents led by Washington Irving and Capt. Jacob Storm founded the cemetery after New York's 1847 Rural Cemetery Act; it was incorporated on October 29, 1849, as Tarrytown Cemetery. Renamed Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on April 11, 1865, it grew from 39 acres to about 90 acres through additions in 1886 and 1890. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Washington Irving is buried in the family plot beside his mother, having chosen the spot days before his death in 1859; his white marble slab has rounded edges meant to foil souvenir hunters who chipped away two earlier stones. The cemetery was renamed Sleepy Hollow in 1865, the name Irving had wanted from the start. Nearby lies the Old Dutch Burying Ground that inspired his tale.
The grounds open daily from 8 in the morning until half past 4 in the afternoon, with parking inside the south gate next to the old Dutch church. The paths are mostly drivable, though some sections cross uneven terrain with slopes.
The Hillside Receiving Vault, built into a steep slope, used the earth's insulation to store bodies when the ground was too frozen for burial. It later appeared as the crypt of Barnabas Collins in the 1970 film House of Dark Shadows and is now part of official cemetery tours.
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