Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow
| Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow | |
|---|---|
North profile and west elevation, 2009
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| Basic information | |
| Location | Sleepy Hollow, NY, USA |
| Geographic coordinates | 41°05′25″N 73°51′42″W / 41.09028°N 73.86167°W |
| Affiliation | Reformed Church in America |
| Status | Only used for special occasions |
| Leadership | The Rev. Jeffrey Gargano |
| Website | Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Frederick Philipse |
| Architectural style | Dutch Colonial |
| Groundbreaking | 1685 |
| Specifications | |
| Direction of façade | West |
| Materials | Stone, wood, brick |
| U.S. National Historic Landmark | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| NRHP Reference no. | 66000581 |
| Designated as NHL | November 5, 1961 |
The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Dutch Reformed Church (Sleepy Hollow), is a 17th-century stone church located on Albany Post Road (U.S. Route 9) in Sleepy Hollow, New York, United States. It and its five-acre (2 ha) churchyard feature prominently in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". The churchyard is often confused with the contiguous but separate Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
It is the second oldest extant church and the 15th oldest extant building in the state of New York, renovated after an 1837 fire. Some of those renovations were reversed 60 years later, and further work was done in 1960. It was listed on the Register in 1966, among the earliest properties so recognized. It had already been designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. It is still the property of the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, which holds summer services there, as well as on special occasions such as Christmas Eve.
The church is located on the east side of Albany Post Road, opposite the Devries Road intersection, just north of downtown Sleepy Hollow. The neighborhoods to the west are residential. A wooded area to the southeast buffers the church from residential areas in that direction. Approximately 300 ft (100 m) to the south is the mill pond at Philipsburg Manor House, another National Historic Landmark. The churchyard and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, itself listed on the Register, are to the north.
The building itself is a rectangular structure with a three-sided projecting rear apse on the east end. It has two-foot–thick (60 cm) fieldstone walls. They give way to clapboard above the roofline, within the fields of the Flemish-style gambrel roof, with its lower segments flaring outward like a bell. On the west end of the roof is an octagonal wooden open belfry. Within it is the original bell, with an engraved verse from Romans 8:31, "Si Deus Pro Nobis, Quis Contras Nos?" ("If God be for us, who can be against us") and "VF", Frederick Philipse's initials. The latter monogram is also on the wrought iron weathervane atop the belfry.
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