A walk around Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow. Philipsburg Manor

According to Visit Sleepy Hollow website:

Today’s villages of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are descendants of this colonial-era farming, milling, and trading center. In 1653 Frederick Philipse came to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as a carpenter for the Dutch West India company. Through canny business skill, an astute sense of politics, and two very advantageous marriages, Philipse came to control 52,000 acres of what is now Westchester County. When the British evicted the Dutch and renamed the colony New York, Philipse switched his allegiance to the British crown and business continued as usual. His heirs were less fortunate in reading the winds of change—they sided with the British during the American Revolution and lost everything in the aftermath.

Philipse’s trading center has been restored to its appearance in 1750 when it was home to several hundred tenant farmers and two dozen African slaves. Programs and events show how Dutch, African, and Native American cultures became entwined at this colonial outpost.

The picture above shows what was once the main entrance to the site from the visitor’s center. It was damaged in a storm (I don’t remember which one) and has yet to be repaired. Visitors now take a different route, which is a pity because this wooden bridge was a spectacular introduction to the site.

The mill is mentioned in the climactic scene at the end of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones’s ghostly competitor had disappeared. “If I can but reach that bridge,” thought Ichabod, “I am safe.” Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the bridge; he thundered over the resounding planks; he gained the opposite side; and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash,—he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwind.

The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means; and it is a favorite story often told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire. The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious awe; and that may be the reason why the road has been altered of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of the millpond. The schoolhouse being deserted soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue and the plowboy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow.

The bridge mentioned above is long gone, as is the school house, but the church (The Old Dutch Church) remains as does the Pocantico River which flows by it and into the mill pond.

Taken with an SMC pentax-f 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 on a Sony NEX 5n.

A walk around Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow. The Legend and a Name Change

The inscription on this marker reads: “Presented to the Village of North Tarrytown by the Centennial Committee. 1874-1974.” Why “North Tarrytown”? Well, the reality is that until 1996 that’s what the village was called. According to Wikipedia:

Originally incorporated as North Tarrytown in the late 19th century, in 1996 the village officially adopted the traditional name for the area. The village is known to many via “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, a short story about the local area and its infamous specter, the Headless Horseman, written by Washington Irving, who lived in Tarrytown and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Owing to this story, as well as the village’s roots in early American history and folklore, Sleepy Hollow is considered by some to be one of the “most haunted places in the world”.

The village is home to the Philipsburg Manor House and the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, as well as the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where in addition to Washington Irving, numerous other notable people are buried.

For more information on the name change see New York Times article: North Tarrytown Votes to Pursue Its Future as Sleepy Hollow. Personally I’d much rather live in Sleepy Hollow than in North Tarrytown.

The marker depicts two of the most famous inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow: Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman as featured in Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Taken with an SMC pentax-f 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 on a Sony NEX 5n

smc pentax-f 35-70mm f3.5-4.5

This is the second of the lenses that came with my ill-fated acquisition of two Pentax autofocus film bodies (See : Tamron AF Aspherical LD 28-200mm f3.8-5.6).

I rather like it. It’s small, light and pretty sharp throughout. Like the Tamron it’s a bit ‘plasticky’, but still feels well made and reliable. I found the colors to bit a bit flat, but nothing that a little extra contrast and saturation couldn’t cure

The zoom range is a little awkward. Because of the crop factor it’s around 52-105mm so you completely lose the wide end. The tele end provides a useful range for portraits though.

It’s not the fastest lens I’ve ever come across, but then again it’s far from being the slowest too. Autofocus is reputed to be good, but since I’ve only used manual focus (on a Sony NEX 5n) I’m unable to comment.

When I was editing the pictures I realized that something was different. At first I didn’t know what it was, but after a while I figured out that for some reason I’d set the camera for jpg rather than RAW (which is what I always use). It was now too late to do anything about it (I wasn’t going to go back and take all the pictures again) so I’ll just have to live with the lack of flexibility that comes from editing jpegs.

For more pictures taken with this lens see:

Picture of lens taken with a Sony A77 II and Tamron A18 AF 18-250mm f3.5-6.3. Pictures of flowers taken with smc pentax-f 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 on a Sony NEX 5n.