#1: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown, N.Y.
America's Oldest Ghost Story
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Named Tarrytown Cemetery when it opened in 1849, the burial ground now known as Sleepy Hollow was later renamed to honor the nearby churchyard that inspired Washington Irving's tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. Irving lies today in the cemetery's south end. (Photo by Jim Logan/Sleepy Hollow Cemetery)
It was a 1798 outbreak of yellow fever in Manhattan that prompted the Irving family to send their 15-year-old son Washington away from the city toward the healthier climate of Tarrytown, where he would get to know descendants of the area's original Dutch settlers and soak up their ghost stories, especially those from the nearby village of Sleepy Hollow.
Some claim to have seen tears and heard crying from the Bronze Lady statue in Sleepy Hollow.
Today, of course, the story Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman in Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the best-loved horror tales in our popular culture. October and November bring the area's busiest tourist season, with daytime walking tours, nighttime lantern tours and even midnight "Murder and Mayhem" tours in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, along with spooky retellings of Irving's classic story at the nearby Old Dutch Church.
Beyond the ghost stories, the cemetery itself is home to many famous names. Irving is buried there, along with several Rockefellers and industrialist Andrew Carnegie, cosmetics magnate Elizabeth Arden and Thomas J. Watson, IBM's chief executive for more than 40 years.