Sleepy Hollow Show & Tell

It’s a book release party like no other. Join us for the first ever SLEEPY HOLLOW SHOW & TELL, featuring spectacular, strange and spooky tales from our neighbors accompanied by odd objects. This unique event will take place in the historic Christ Episcopal Church San Marcos, Washington Irving’s own congregation when he lived at nearby Sunnyside at the height of his world renown. 

Sleepy Hollow Show & Tell is also a fundraiser–proceeds will assist the church with their altarpiece restoration project.* Plus, every ticket gets you a signed copy of the new “best of” edition of Irving’s classic THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW & Other Stories**, produced here in the Hollow and introduced by local author Krista Madsen. 

• Reception with light refreshments to follow. Advance ticket reservations encouraged but not required. Tickets and more info here.

*A NOTE ABOUT THE FUNDRAISING: The triptych behind the church’s altar, a three-paneled oil-on-canvas Last Supper scene, was painted likely in 1902 by Ida Rosenquest (1864-1940). Ida grew up in Tarrytown on Neperan Street at Rosehill (part of the park now), and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. She was an instructor (of fundamental art courses in the Elementary Dept) at the New York School for Applied Design for Women in New York City. The School was established in 1892 by philanthropist Ellen Dunlop Hopkins as part of the Arts and Crafts movement. It aimed to “afford women practical instruction which will enable them to earn a livelihood by the application of ornamental design to manufacture and the numerous Arts and Crafts.” The school provided courses in book cover design, stained glass, textile and wallpaper design, illustration, etc., with a salesroom for student products. With this triptych, Ida memorialized her mother Harriet, a very active member of this congregation, who had died of diabetes in 1890 at the age of 45. The paintings are in bad condition from age and the elements and require expensive restoration.

**ABOUT THE BOOK: Selected works from Washington Irving’s classic The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. collection (from the 1848 G.P. Putnam edition) include his most popular and enduring tales originally serialized from 1819-20: “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” along with a lesser known but equally interesting ghost story, “The Spectre Bridegroom,” and two odd essays verging on the fantastical: “The Mutability of Literature” and “The Art of Book-Making.”

This slim yet gift-worthy “best of” volume, produced in that very real yet mythic village of Sleepy Hollow by publisher Sleepy Hollow, inK., begins with a contemporary introduction by local author Krista Madsen, and ends with blank “sketch pages,” inviting the reader’s own musings and drawings. The vibrant cover design celebrates two female artists from the second wave of the Hudson River School movement.