How A Legendary Church In Sleepy Hollow Stays Faithful In A Halloween Mecca
SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY — Along the Hudson River, about an hour north of New York City, is a church perched atop a small hill in a village called Sleepy Hollow. For 300 years, the ghost who haunts the churchyard has frightened locals and travelers alike.
These days, a new force distresses the residents: Tourism.
When Washington Irving immortalized the Old Dutch Church with its Headless Horseman in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” it became a literary mainstay for generations. And while the story has been a beloved shard of eerie Americana for decades, its popularity greatly increased at the turn of the century.
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This compounding enthusiasm for a haunted churchyard has resulted in tourism, which has taken its toll on the both the church and the village of Sleepy Hollow during the Halloween season and beyond.
“The church is often seen as a spectacle, and that's not how we see it at all,” said Rev. Jeff Gargano, pastor of Reformed Church of The Tarrytowns, which meets in the Old Dutch Church.
Gargano said the church’s legendarily creepy status hasn’t always been easy to navigate. He told the story of a couple who booked the church to perform their wedding in 2009. In some attempt at a Halloween-themed marriage ceremony, they asked the organist to play the theme song from “The Munsters” TV show as part of the ceremony.
When Gargano drew the line and told them they could not use that song in the church, he said the couple went to the news media “and it just blew up.”
“We've been very intentional since then about making clear that this is, first and foremost, a church,” Gargano added.
As a rsult, the church no longer hosts weddings in October.
But Gargano said he knows that the site will always be associated with a haunted legend and a creepy season.
“We recognize its place in American culture,” he said. “We will embrace that as just simply extending Christian hospitality to any who come for whatever reason.”
The Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. (Wikipedia Commons photo)
Christians and Halloween
This open-mindedness greatly contrasts the recent history of Christianity and Halloween. When the “Satanic Panic” swept its way across the United States in the 1980s, many frightened Christians and dutiful pastors made it a point to distance themselves from the holiday.
In some cases, this meant a total condemnation of all Halloween activities; throwing out not just Ouija Boards and demonic activity, but also trick-or-treating and jack-o-lantern carving.
In recent years, the church’s conversations have been less haunted by Halloween. Even so, radical voices persist. Gargano said he’s not interested in condemnation. In fact, the church’s website even promotes local Halloween events.
“I think you need to be a whole lot more cautious and willing to accept people where they are instead of condemning them. That's just not the way I look at the world, not the way I look at Scripture and certainly not the way I understand the life of Jesus. I'm not really into condemning,” Gargano said.
He said that some people have become a part of the church after initially just being attracted by its history.
“People have joined the church because they were very interested in in ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and in the aura of Sleepy Hollow — especially in October,” Gargano said. “They met us, they like to sing in the choir, they like to be a part of this famous place and then they hopefully commit themselves to Christ, too.”
A portrait of Washington Irving (Wikipedia Commons image)
Irving, Headless Horseman and tourists
Published in 1820, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” claims the title of the first American short story, along with Irving’s other tale “Rip Van Winkle.” It has since been adapted into a Disney Cartoon and live action Tim Burton movie starring actor Johnny Depp.
The story observes the strange habits of an awkward village schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane. Crane seeks to win the hand of the rich and lovely Katrina Van Tassel, despite the advances of her more likely suitor, Brom Bones.
Along with the rest of the town, Crane enjoys ghost stories. One of these stories tells the tale of a Hessian soldier decapitated during the Revolutionary War who reenacts his fatal battle scene through the night — but returns to his grave in the churchyard before dawn. One fateful evening, Crane encounters the specter and mysteriously disappears.
The tale has attracted pilgrims of varied intentions to its haunted churchyard. But the complicated relationship with the Headless Horseman and his many fans extends to more than the church.
Tourism has been a massive boost to the village’s economy. Lucia Ballas-Traynor, Executive Director of the Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce, said the annual Halloween Parade — a Sleepy Hollow staple — typically attracts 7,000 attendees. After 2022, she said, attendance was closer to 14,000.
This surplus of visitors has real financial benefits, she said, anf that “you hear of stories of a convenience shop that made in one day — when there was an event going on—what they would have made in an entire month.”
“However,” she added, “then you have those businesses that provide services — like the beauty salons — their customers stay away because they're local.”
It’s also been a logistical issue in terms of parking and traffic. Large tour buses come in for the festival and are unable to fit anywhere. This makes Ballas-Traynor’s job, a little different during the fall.
“Tourism is not supposed to be my role. … The role of the chamber is advocating for and promoting local businesses,” she said.
While these tourists aren’t all trying to plan spooky weddings or attend Sunday morning services, the Old Dutch Church is still not safe from the swarms of Halloween visitors. The graveyard gets the brunt of abuse. Many travel to the site to witness Irving’s very own moss-stained grave that’s located there. Despite having no official affiliation with the cemetery, the church stands surrounded by its gravestones.
According to Ballas-Traynor, the problems include “young people drinking and loitering,” a car that once drove over a tombstone and, naturally, “influencers trying to do a photo shoot.”
Dr. Sara Mascia, Executive Director of The Historical Society of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, said the church was built after a sizable population of Dutch immigrants settled in the area.
It was likely built in 1697, Mascia said, and that “[Irving] came here as a teen, in the late 1790s. So, when the church was probably about 100 years old.”
Mascia said that “it's been an operating church since it opened.” That means that now the church has been active for 300 years. However, due to the lack of lighting and heating of the colonial structure, a second building was built in 1837 to better accommodate the congregants. But, ever faithful to their history, the church continues to meet in the original building during the warmer months.
The way Mascia tells it, the Sleepy Hollow story must have largely come together during Irving’s stay in Tarrytown.
“He attended church here, he went through the churchyard, he saw the names on the headstones, he heard the stories about the people that lived here during the American Revolution.”
One of the graves Irving likely observed was that of Catriena Van Tessel, which almost certainly inspired the name Katrina Van Tassel.
Irving, a Scottish Presbyterian who grew up in a religious home, was heavily influenced by exploring and experiencing the town. But his own influence on the town was so great, that he might have named the place. Sleepy Hollow was named North Tarrytown from 1874-1996. Before that, it was just part of Mount Pleasant.
Mascia said that some early maps identified a small cove at the bottom of the Hudson River as Sleepy Hole, Sleepy Cove or, as it would come to be known, Sleepy Hollow. In other words, Irving likely did not invent the label, but the impact of his story is what gave the residents the push to officially adopt the name.
“If there was no Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow,” Gargano said, “there would not even be a village called Sleepy Hollow.”
Matthew Peterson is currently the John McCandlish Phillips intern at Religion Unplugged. He is a student at Baruch College in New York City.