Patriot's Park

About this property

Patriots Park (originally referred to as Brookside Park) is located on U.S. Route 9 along the boundary between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is a four-acre (1.6-ha) parcel with a walkway and several monuments. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. During the American Revolutionary War Major John André of the British Army was captured, disguised in civilian clothing, at the site by three Patriot militiamen. They found papers on him that implicated him in espionage with Benedict Arnold, a high-ranking officer of the Continental Army. After a military trial André was executed; Arnold defected to the British and lived his remaining years after the war in England. A memorial was erected on the site in 1853, on land donated by William and Mary Taylor, members of the local African American community. It was one of the earliest monuments to honor any event of the Revolutionary War. Later it was expanded and incorporated into Brookside Park, a late 19th-century Beaux-Arts residential development by the firm of Carrère and Hastings. Later it became the campus of two different girls' boarding schools, one of which was attended by Lauren Bacall. It became a park and took its current name in the early 20th century, and all buildings but the gatehouse were demolished. The park is a four-acre (1.6 ha) parcel located between North Broadway (Route 9) on its east, North Washington Street to the west and College Avenue on the north. The southwest corner has some houses continuing down to Wildey Street; Tarrytown's public library is to the southeast. Across North Washington are more houses, which continue to the College intersection at the northwest. Church of the Immaculate Conception is across from the park at College and North Broadway. To the east is the large open lawn of John Paulding School, the public elementary school of the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns, which has its headquarters north of the school in the former Edward Harden Mansion, also listed on the National Register. Behind them runs the Old Croton Aqueduct, a National Historic Landmark. The commercial areas of downtown Sleepy Hollow are two blocks to the north along North Broadway. Topographically the park consists of two slight rises, more pronounced toward the west, reflecting the land's general descent toward the nearby Hudson River. They are divided by the narrow channel followed by Andre Brook, which also forms the boundary between the two villages, Tarrytown to the south and Sleepy Hollow to the north. The land is mostly open, with tall mature trees providing shade opportunities, more in the north of the park than the south.

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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