Old Dutch Church

Visiting the Old Dutch Church and Burying Ground

The Burying Ground is open to visitors until 4:30pm daily.

Organized tour groups must receive permission from the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns to tour the Burying Ground (contact via office@rctodc.org). The email must include: the name of the organizer, contact information for the organizer and tour leader, the date and time of the prospective visit, and the number of people in the group. The group must have approval prior to coming to the Burying Ground. If the group wishes to see the grave of Washington Irving, they must contact Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to make arrangements.  Please note that tour buses are not permitted in the parking lot without the express permission of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Sunday Worship is held at the Old Dutch Church from June 30 through Labor Day. Visitors who would like to take pictures or speak with a docent may be able to visit for a bit after the Sunday 10:30 am service.

Descendants of families buried in the Old Dutch Burying Ground are urged to contact the office before their visit if they have questions about their ancestors. Any research requests are handled by volunteers on their own schedules. Additional information may be obtained at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery office during regular business hours.

Donations are always appreciated and go directly toward the preservation of this historic structure.

The Burying ground is open daily until 4:30pm. 

 

The Church That Inspired the Legend

“It stands on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from among which its descent, whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity, beaming through the shades of retirement…. To look upon this grassgrown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in peace.”
-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

When Washington Irving set his ghost story about the Headless Horseman at the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, he made the church world-famous. Ever since the publication of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1819-20, visitors have come to see where Ichabod Crane led the choir and courted Katrina Van Tassel among the old gravestones in the churchyard, and looked for the grave of the Headless Horseman in the Old Burying Ground.

The church was already old when Irving first saw it, when he was a teenager. It was built in 1685 and formally organized as Dutch Reformed in 1697. It served as the congregation’s home for imore than 150 years, until a new building was constructed. Even then, it was retained for worship on summer Sundays and special holidays. This custom continues today.

If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
– Romans 8:31

This inscription on the bell that hangs in the belfry of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow has been a comfort to the congregation through war and peace, personal joys and tragedies, since it was commissioned in Holland and installed in the belfry. Most historians date the church’s construction to 1685, the year engraved on the bell.

The church is recognized as the oldest extant church in New York and a National Historic Landmark. The Old Dutch Burying Ground, which surrounds it on three acres, is believed to predate the church. Washington Irving is buried just up the hill, in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery adjacent.

During Holy Week and Easter, the Reformed Church holds Good Friday services and an Easter Sunrise service at the Old Dutch Church. Summer worship services at Old Dutch feature “Seven Sundays of Worship and Music,” with guest musicians each Sunday morning during the season.

Other events at Old Dutch include Christmas Eve candlelight services, organ concerts. Tours are scheduled on October weekends. The Reformed Church partners with Historic Hudson Valley to present a dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ “Christmas Carol.”

An engaging history of the church is now available from Friends of Old Dutch. The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow: Legends and Lore of the Oldest Church in New York by Janie Couch Allen and Elinor Griffith may be purchased through the church office, at 914-631-4497.  Proceeds go toward preservation and upkeep of the Old Dutch Church and Burying Ground.

Old Dutch Church News

Honoring 334 Years

In 1685, when it was built in the wilderness north of New York City, the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow brought comfort and community to isolated pioneer families. Succeeding generations treasured the old church, the only house of worship in a wide area until 1837, when members of Old Dutch built a larger church nearby then another a few years later. Yet somehow they didn’t abandon the old church, which continues to this day to host the congregation every summer for worship services. What was it about the church on the Pocantico River, made famous by Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow? Read about its rich history and colorful characters in The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow: Legends and Lore of the Oldest Church in New York. It is available from the church office at (914) 631-4497.