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Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

The original Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Walking Tours

Sleepy hollow cemetery walking tours.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery turns 175 this year! Washington Irving himself helped found the cemetery on October 29th, 1849 and we've been serving the local community ever since. Help us mark this special year by coming to visit - take a walking tour, or enjoy a special event. Each month from May through November we'll feature something unique that you can't do anywhere else, but here!

Be a part of our future as we celebrate the past! 100% of the proceeds go directly towards preservation and restoration projects. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations to the Historic Fund are always welcome.

Advance tickets are required. Tickets can be scanned off your mobile phone if you are unable to print them out.

For our special events, CLICK HERE.

Meet the father of the American short story on this one-hour tour!  Learn all about Washington Irving, his impact on American Literature and the enduring appeal of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", which recently celebrated its Bicentennial. Best of all, you'll find out why Irving is called the Original Knickerbocker!

Dates: Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. through September. In October also 11:00 a.m. - 12 noon.

https://www.showclix.com/event/the-original-knickerbocker-2024

Classic Daytime Tour

Soak up the beauty of this 175-year old cemetery while your guide regales you with stories of the fascinating people resting here in peace.

Our two-hour daytime walk is the perfect way "to have a colloquy among the tombs" as Washington Irving, famous author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", did himself back in 1849.

We pay homage to the great author, stop by some of the most interesting monuments in the old section before heading north to visit the final resting places of two-term Chicago Mayor Walter Gurnee, steel titan Andrew Carnegie, oilman William Rockefeller, two people vital to the success of Wells Fargo and American Express, and much more. Admire beautiful art, architecture and cool cemetery symbolism along the way.  This tour gives a great overview of why Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is so famous.

Please note that the Classic Daytime Tour is   the same route   as the Classic Evening Lantern tour. The content is exactly the same - it just starts in a different location.

Dates: Every Saturday and Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 12 noon and 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. in October; 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. only in September.

https://www.showclix.com/event/the-classic-day-tour-2024

Step back in time and explore the cemetery by kerosene lantern light! This two-hour evening tour gives you a great overview of why Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is so famous.

You’ll visit titans of industry like Andrew Carnegie and William Rockefeller, meet Washington Irving whose famous short story gave our village its very name, see the resting place of two-term Chicago Mayor Walter Gurnee, and learn about two people vital to the success of Wells Fargo and American Express, and much more. Along the way, admire beautiful art, architecture and cool cemetery symbolism.

Dates:   In September, Friday and Saturday nights. In October, every night of the month. In November, weekends and select weekdays.

Please note that if only 1 ticket shows as available during the purchase process that is the only (i.e., last) ticket available.

The true stories on this two-hour lantern tour are so grim, you just might have nightmares!

Curious to learn about a family that lost 5 children one terrible afternoon, or a horrific murder that led police on a multi-state chase? Maybe you’d like to hear about a son who shot his father before turning the gun on himself, and a daughter who poisoned her mother? If so, then this is the tour for you!

Murder and Mayhem is back and better than ever with a new route - visit a few old favorites and leave with new ones! The truth is always stranger than fiction.

Subject matter is not suitable for children under 18.  For the enjoyment of all tour goers, thank you for respecting this policy.

Dates: Sept. 14th, 21st & 26th from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.; Sept. 28th from 8:45 - 10:45 p.m. In October, Thursday and Saturday evenings. In November, select Thursdays and every Saturday.

https://www.showclix.com/event/murder-and-mayhem-2024

Join Sara Mascia and Tara Van Tassell from our local historical society as they dish about several intriguing locals as well as some of our world- famous inhabitants on this walking tour. You can guess who will be good, bad, or unusual! Among the many locals are poet and eccentric Minna Irving, chocolatier William Wallace, and popular neighbor “Uncle” Washington Irving. They will also bring guests to visit some of the individuals who became locals by making Sleepy Hollow their final resting place, such as wealthy industrialist Andrew Carnegie, labor leader Samuel Gompers, a crop of Alexander Hamiltons, and many others.

Please note some dates are daytime tours and some are evening lantern tours.

Dates & Times: September 27 & 28, October 4, 5, 11 and 12 from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; October 13 and November 3 from 2:00-4:00 p.m.

https://www.showclix.com/event/the-good-the-bad-and-the-unusual-2024

Group visits

All groups must be accompanied by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery staff. Only Cemetery staff members are permitted to conduct tours here . Email us at  [email protected]  for information about scheduling your group and what fees apply. External organizations and parties are expressly prohibited from using the Cemetery for personal profit or private activities not authorized in advance by the Cemetery. It is not possible for groups to wander the grounds on their own. Unauthorized groups on the property will be asked to leave immediately.

Please note that the cemetery is private property, owned by its lot owners, and funerals occur most days of the week.

On your own

Walk or drive our 90 acre grounds during visiting hours, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm daily. Entrance is free to individual members of the public. All groups must be accompanied by cemetery staff.

Please note that tour buses and other large vehicles are not permitted without advance arrangements; access fees apply for all groups.  

Commercial photography and/or video filming of any sort is only permitted with prior authorization of the Cemetery superintendent and site fees apply. Unauthorized photo shoots will be immediately escorted of the property.

• Our full-color, 17” x 20” map is an indispensable guide to more than 50  special features  of the cemetery. Purchase at the cemetery office during business hours (Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4 pm, closed major holidays) or at the Bella's Boutique at 35 North Broadway, Tarrytown. Purchase now through https://www.headlesshorsemangifts.com .
• We offer free legal-sized maps of our 90 acres—perfect for a short, self-guided tour to 8 major figures in the cemetery. Pick up a copy at the cemetery office.

The Public History of Cemeteries

Cemeteries are community touchstones, walking tours.

A walking tour is probably the easiest way to provide historical context for your cemetery and the people buried there. The cost can be free — just an investment of time and effort — to a sizable investment, if you want to provide printed brochures or online mapping support.

There are two main types of walking tour: self-guided and guided. While self-explanatory, there are many ways to go about creating either kind of tour.

Guided Tours

The guided walking tour is an old classic, and is a great way to get people to visit your cemetery. Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon, offers a guided tour of the cemetery, every few weeks. These are $10 and usually attract about twenty people interested in attending, according to the Facebook events. If you have a really great volunteer, have them come up with the tour narrative. I would suggest having a central narrative that has a map of where to walk with the text of the gravestones to visit on the tour. However, the guides don’t need to follow this word for word. Provide a good framework and then let your volunteers do the rest. People will like the tours if the tour guides are knowledgeable and interested in the topic themselves. Enthusiasm shows and is contagious. While guided tours are the most personal way to tour a cemetery, not every place has the capacity to offer guided tours. That’s where self-guided tours come in.

Self Guided Tours

There are a lot of kinds of self-guided tours and technology is making it easier to create innovative kinds of ways for people to interact with your cemetery.

Printed Walking Tours

The traditional self-guided tour usually comes in the form of a brochure with a map and

This is the interior of a brochure the Linkville Pioneer Cemetery has available for visitors at the entrance gate. (Photo from OCHC database 319_27)

places to stop marked out. Each stop has a short story of the person buried there. This is a great and relatively low-cost option. If you want to start with something small and practical, this option is great. Install a waterproof brochure holder at your site and refill the holder on a regular basis so people visiting have access to the brochure right when they walk up. The Linkville Pioneer Cemetery in Klamath Falls, Oregon, provides a brochure at their gate for visitors to the cemetery which includes a map, interesting monuments and people, and general information about the cemetery. This is a great example of what a printed walking tour could look like. Don’t forget to post this to your website as well so people can print it out on their own or explore the cemetery from home!

App Based Tours

One of the newer ways of offering tours for your visitors is an app-based tour. The Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta Georgia has an app you can download onto your preferred device. Included is an introductory narrative, list of features, and map function which lets you click on different features to learn more about them. The app is free, but for $2, you can upgrade to include more places of interest. This might be a great project to partner up with a nearby university that has a software developing program. This would also be a great grant project, as it’s a new and innovative way to interact with visitor. One really cool benefit is that people can explore the cemetery right from home. Even in Oregon, I was able to learn quite a bit about the Oakland Cemetery right from my computer table.

Google Maps (or other mapping tech)

Virtual Tours

There are many cemeteries who also offer virtual tours of their cemeteries online. Arlington Cemetery in Pennsylvania offers what is essentially a Google Streetview tour of the whole cemetery which you can click through. The Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia (along with segway tours!) offers a interactive map virtual tour where you can click through interesting places, while viewing photos and historical interpretation in the side panel. These options both require more technical knowhow than a printed or Google Map self-guided tour.

Remember that any of these options are only going to be as successful as you can make them. Don’t try to do a virtual tour if your team of staff or volunteers doesn’t have the capacity to do so. An old-fashioned, printed brochure can be a really great way to provide information to your visitors and encourage locals to come back out and see what’s going on at the local cemetery. Your cemetery and your community will know what is the best option for you!

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Where the Legend Lives

• Armour-Stiner Octagon House
• Blessing of the Animals
• Christ Church Fall Fair
• Sleepy Hollow Show & Tell
• Tours of Historic Christ Church (Washington Irving’s parish)
• David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center at Pocantico
• Headless Horseman Bridge
• Headless Horseman Statue
• Historical Society
• Legend Landmarks
• Gothic Harvest Market
• Victorian Tintype Portraits
• Old Croton Aqueduct Trail
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Old Dutch Church
• Legend of Sleepy Hollow Discovery Walk
• The Spirits of Sleepy Hollow Country
• Twilight Village at Sleepy Hollow
• Hulda’s Night at Rockefeller State Park
• Pocantico Hills Marathon & Half Marathon

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Tours

• Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Special Events
• Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse
• Stone Barns Center
• Irving’s Legend
• Union Church of Pocantico Hills
• Events Calendar
• Planning the Ultimate Halloween Trip to Sleepy Hollow, NY
• Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze
• Lyndhurst After Dark
• Rock N Roll House Of Horrors
• Sleepy Hollow Haunted Hayride
• Sleepy Hollow International Film Festival
• Sleepy Hollow Street Fair
• SUP Witches of Sleepy Hollow Festival
• Tarrytown Halloween Parade
• Dracula and the Theater of Doom
• Tarrytown Music Hall Ghost Tours
• Farmers Markets
• Sleepy Hollow Souvenirs
• Twilight Village at Sleepy Hollow
• Apple Picking
• Lunch and Dinner
• Coffee and Tea
• Motels and Budget
• Inns and Bed & Breakfasts
• The Other Ghosts of Sleepy Hollow
• Sleepy Hollow Country
• How Charles Dickens Stole Christmas
• Movies Made Here

Advance tickets are required; no on-site purchase of tickets.

The cemetery also hosts a series of September and October special events .

2024 Daytime Guided Tours

• Classic Daytime Tour.  Soak up the beauty of this 175-year old cemetery while your guide regales you with stories of the fascinating people resting here in peace. This two-hour daytime walk pays homage to Washington Irving before heading north to visit the final resting places of two-term Chicago Mayor Walter Gurnee, steel titan Andrew Carnegie, oilman William Rockefeller, and much more. Admire beautiful art, architecture and cool cemetery symbolism along the way. This tour gives a great overview of why Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is so famous. 2024 Dates: Saturdays and Sundays from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. through September. October and November dates will be posted in early September.

For tickets: http://sleepyhollowcemetery.org/walking-tours/

2024 Evening Lantern Tours

• Classic Evening Lantern Tour. Step back in time and explore the cemetery by kerosene lantern light! This two-hour evening tour gives you a great overview of why Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is so famous. You’ll visit titans of industry like Andrew Carnegie and William Rockefeller, meet Washington Irving whose famous short story gave our village its very name, see the resting place of two-term Chicago Mayor Walter Gurnee, and much more. Along the way, admire beautiful art, architecture and cool cemetery symbolism. 2024 Dates: Saturday nights through the summer. In September, Friday and Saturday nights. Start times vary due to sunset; please check individual dates for start times. October and November dates will be posted in early September.

Murder & Mayhem

The true stories on this two-hour lantern tour are so grim, you just might have nightmares!

Curious to learn about a family that lost 5 children one terrible afternoon, or a horrific murder that led police on a multi-state chase? Maybe you’d like to hear about a son who shot his father before turning the gun on himself, and a daughter who poisoned her mother? If so, then this is the tour for you!

Murder and Mayhem is back and better than ever with a new route - visit a few old favorites and leave with new ones! The truth is always stranger than fiction.

Subject matter is not suitable for children under 18. For the enjoyment of all tour goers, please respect this policy.

2024 Dates: August 3rd and 31st from 8:15 - 10:15 pm. September 14, 21 and 26 from 7:30-9:30 pm. September 28 from 8:45-10:45 p.m. October and November dates will be posted in early September.

The Good, the Bad and the Unusual!

Join Sara Mascia and Tara Van Tassell from our local historical society as they dish about several intriguing locals as well as some of our world- famous inhabitants. You can guess who will be good, bad, or unusual! Among the many locals are poet and eccentric Minna Irving, chocolatier William Wallace, and popular neighbor “Uncle” Washington Irving. They will also bring guests to visit some of the individuals who became locals by making Sleepy Hollow their final resting place, such as wealthy industrialist Andrew Carnegie, labor leader Samuel Gompers, a crop of Alexander Hamiltons, and many others all by the light of kerosene lanterns.

2024 Dates: to be announced.

Events Search and Views Navigation

Event views navigation, the original knickerbocker tour $20, classic daytime cemetery tour $27.5, champagne cocktails with the dead $95, murder mystery $60, paint a headless horseman with heather gleason $80, an evening with edgar allan poe $40, bram stoker’s dracula $45, the man behind the legend $45.

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• (504) 777-3027
• (800) 368-1789
• [email protected]

The Official St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Tour: Walk Among The City’s Historic Tombs

Available tour.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Walking Tour

Every 15 Minutes

Unveiling The Lives of New Orleans’ Past Residents

What To Expect On Your New Orleans Cemetery Tour

With each tour, guests will be led by an experienced local guide who is well-versed in the history of New Orleans and St. Louis Cemetery No 1. Learn fascinating facts and surprising stories about the individuals buried within cemetery walls. Fans of architecture can marvel at the many diverse styles of tombs, including ornate family vaults and society tombs. Come see New Orleans in a whole new way – Reserve a St. Louis Cemetery tour today! Check-In is at Basin St. Station to receive your Gate Passes, and Tour Wristbands from the Tour Desk prior to your tour. While you wait to begin, explore the Visitor Center: home to comfortable seating, a break from the weather, pristine restrooms, and the Street Car Gift Shop and Basin St. Cafe.

What To Expect On New Orleans Cemetery Tours

Why Tour St. Louis Cemetery No. 1?

Small groups & dedicated guides.

At St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, we intentionally keep touring groups small for a more intimate exploration of the grave sites. Create a deeper connection with New Orleans and its inhabitants as you ask questions and receive answers directly from your dedicated guide.

Famous and (In)Famous Residents

Get up and close personal with the final resting places of individuals like Marie Laveau, the legendary Voodoo Queen, and Homer Plessy, the plaintiff who brought the landmark civil rights case Plessy v. Ferguson to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Detailed Historical Commentary

A cemetery tour is a great way to immerse yourself in the past. Get a sense of what life was like for the many generations of people buried in New Orleans. You'll even learn some interesting facts about the cemetery's distinctive above-ground tombs and the reasons that led to this unique regional custom.

Flexible & Easy Booking

Our customer service team prioritizes the positive experiences of all guests who tour with us. Our flexible and convenient online booking system can help you select a tour day and time that works best for you. Please note, that all guests must pre-book tickets and check-in at our cemetery tour desk located at 501 Basin Street before attending the tour.

Ready For Your St. Louis Cemetery Excursion?

Frequently asked questions.

Occasionally yes, but normally No.  Each tour departure is limited to 20 persons. Tour departure times should be reserved in advance to ensure a place on the tour.  Please arrive 15 minutes early to allow time for ticketing & greeting!

The cemetery is not open to the public – only for our authorized tours.

Private family visitation is authorized by the Archdiocese of New Orleans with Family Pass, available at the New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries Office.

To inquire, you may email [email protected] or call 504-596-3050 for more information. 

Comfortable shoes are the most important item – many uneven surfaces exist in the historic site.

Light airy clothing in the hot summer months – jackets and hats in the colder winter months.

The waking tour normally lasts about 45 minutes. However, the tour could finish later depending on weather and other unforeseen events.

A Time Capsule Etched In Stone

Officially founded in 1718 by the French, New Orleans became famous for its Mardi Gras celebrations, distinct cuisine, and lively music. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 effectively functions as a de facto time capsule for the city throughout different periods of its history. From the mysterious life and death of the renowned Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau to the eccentric Nicolas Cage pyramid tomb, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 encapsulates the soul of the Big Easy in all its quirks and glory. In short, no trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to this beautiful historic cemetery.

An Above-Ground Necropolis

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 hosts hundreds of above-ground tombs unlike any others in the United States. Established in 1789, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest extant cemetery in New Orleans. These distinctive above-ground tombs became increasingly popular in the city throughout the late 18th century due to the climate in New Orleans that made traditional underground graves impractical. As time went on, these burial structures evolved into ornate architectural works of art that reflected the social status of the families buried within.

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Photo Gallery