Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York)

Sunnyside

Sunnyside is a house in Tarrytown, New York. It was once the home of American writer Washington Irving. He wrote many books, but he is best known for the short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". Irving bought the property on June 7, 1835 for $1,800. He described it to his brother as "a beautiful spot, capable of being made a little paradise ... I have had an architect up there, and shall build upon the old mansion this summer. My idea is to make it a little nookery somewhat in the Dutch style, quaint, but unpretending. It will be of stone." In its day, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. said that Sunnyside stood "next to Mount Vernon, the best known and most cherished of all the dwellings in our land." The public interest in the home drew several gawkers hoping to catch a glimpse of Irving working. Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside on November 28, 1859. Irving's descendants lived in the house until 1945. In that year, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought it. He opened the house to tourists in 1947. Sunnyside is now a museum. An admission fee is charged. The house contains furniture that once belonged to Irving. Sunnyside became a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York) Media

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  Washington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside, by Christian Schussele (1864)

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  Sunnyside, Currier and Ives, c.1860

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  The "Spanish Tower", added in 1847, contains four bedrooms

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  The stepped-gabled west facade of the house, which faces the Hudson River, with the porch – which Irving called his "piazza" – beyond it. It is uncertain why Irving put "1656" at the top of the wall, since the original cottage dates from the 1690s.