Headless Horsemen, Long Naps, and Sunshine: Washington Irving and Sunnyside
By Riley Wentzler & Felicia Barber
Washington Irving was born in New York City in 1783. He studied law at various institutions. However, he did not really enjoy studying law and therefore began submitting essays to various newspapers in New York in 1802. Some of the essays were published in a collection titled Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle Gent. These essays started receiving attention in literary circles. From 1804 to 1806 he developed health issues which made Europe’s climate better for him. Therefore, he spent those years traveling abroad. After he returned to America, he was admitted to the New York State Bar. But, he was as unhappy practicing law as he had been studying it years earlier, and so, in 1815, he left for Liverpool England (MICROSOFT ENCARTA, 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation).
It was there that he became friends with several prominent writers including: Thomas Campbell, Sir Walter Scott, and Thomas Moore. While in England, he wrote mostly under the pen name of Geoffrey Crayon.
In 1819 and 1820 he wrote a collection of short stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. In this collection are his two most famous works “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820). From 1826 until 1832 he lived in Spain because he was on the staff of the United States Ambassador to Spain. During this time he wrote many histories including: History of Christopher Columbus (1828) and The Alhambra (1832). The Alhambra is a famous Muslim castle in the Spanish city of Granada. In 1832 he returned to the United States briefly. Then ten years later he was appointed United States Ambassador to Spain, so he lived in Spain again from 1842-1846. When he returned to America for the last time, he bought his house, which he named “Sunnyside”(MICROSOFT ENCARTA, 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation).
It was originally a small stone house built in the Dutch Colonial Revival style, but after much expansion and remodeling he converted it to what it is today, creating a massive estate in the process (https://www.iloveny.com/listing/washington-irvings-sunnyside/3558/). During this remodel, he incorporated elements from Tudor and Gothic architectural styles. The end result is a nod to the simple, yet elegant, style prevalent in England during the 19th century. He lived at Sunnyside until his death in 1859 (MICROSOFT ENCARTA, 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation). It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is located on the Irvington-Tarrytown border. The address is 3 West Sunnyside Lane, Irvington, NY 10533 (https://hudsonvalley.org/historic-sites/washington-irvings-sunnyside/).
Previous Slices of History include:
- The Intersection of Banking, Ballet, and School: Greenburgh’s Warburg Estate (Updated) (10/22/19) https://greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/6095/The-Intersection-of-Banking--Ballet--and-School-updated
- Lost History: The Tragedy of Malkasten (1/26/19) https://www.greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/5673/Lost-History--The-Tragedy-of-Malkasten
- Juneteenth: A Day of Liberation (6/6/2020) https://greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/6920/Juneteenth--A-Day-of-Liberation
- The Jewel of Greenburgh: The Life of Charles Lewis Tiffany (7/25/2020) https://greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/7049/The-Jewel-of-Greenburgh---The-Life-of-Charles-Lewis-Tiffany
- Hastings’ Best and Brightest : Nobel Laureates of Hastings
(8/1/2020) https://greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/7065/Hastings-Best-and--Brightest---Nobel-Laureates-of-Hastings
About the Authors:
We are both Assistant Town Historians at Greenburgh Town Hall and we are engaged to be married and are currently looking for permanent employment.
Riley Wentzler:
I was born and raised in a small rural town in central Pennsylvania. In high school, I took every honors course available including four years of Spanish. I received A’s in all of them. I graduated third in my class of 146 students. This brought me to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Once there, I continued my trend of academic excellence. I graduated summa cum laude in Political Science with a minor in Spanish and a Master’s in Communication Studies, with a G.P.A of 3.94. It was also there that I met my lovely fiancée, Felicia Barber. My Master’s in Communication has promoted public speaking, teamwork, and customer service. My Political Science degree has developed my research skills using computer-based tools and provided me with experience using the Microsoft Office products. My minor in Spanish has facilitated my bilingual capabilities. During my internship at Greenburgh, I created the petition for the State Roads project using website tools. My diverse education and areas of interest have provided me with a wide range of skills. I look forward to finding a career opportunity in business or government. To suggest a topic for next week’s article, you can contact me at assistanthistorian@greenburghny.com, or to help me find employment, you can contact me at rjwentzler413@gmail.com
Felicia Barber:
I was born in New York City and raised in Hartsdale, New York. I graduated from Ardsley High School. I recently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. It was here that I met my fiancé, Riley Wentzler. As a result of my academic excellence, I won a scholarship every year. I learned and applied many graphic design skills to projects during my summer internships and at school. I am proficient in using Adobe graphic design applications including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. For my Identity/branding course at Edinboro, I created logos to appear on the tee-shirts of Physical Education majors. For a veteran’s upcoming event, I used a typeface to focus the reader to the soldier in the poster. For the State Roads Legislative Campaign project, I created the embedded graphic-photo that accompanied the petition I am looking for a job to utilize my skills as a Graphic Designer in an agency, print shop, company or government To suggest a topic for next week’s article, you can contact me at assistanthistorian@greenburghny.com. To learn more about my artwork or to help me find employment you can contact me at feliciadbarber@gmail.com
Two Interviews with the authors:
https://riverjournalonline.com/around-town/a-love-of-history-and-each-other/13708/
https://wcbs880.radio.com/articles/news/stories-main-street-couple-cerebral-palsy-brings-manytalents-town-greenburgh
References
Historic Hudson Valley. (2020, August- (NOT GIVEN) ). Washington Irving's Sunnyside. Retrieved from Historic Hudson Valley: https://hudsonvalley.org/historic-sites/washington-irvings-sunnyside/
Microsoft Corporation. (1993-2003, (Not Given) (Not Given)). Encarta Encyclopedia . Redmond , Washington , United States of America .
New York Department of Economic Development. (2020, (NOT GIVEN) (NOT GIVEN)). Washington Irving's Sunnyside. Retrieved from I Love NY: https://www.iloveny.com/listing/washington-irvings-sunnyside/3558/