Enjoy our Halloween morning tour of Sparta Cemetery, led by Town Historian Scott Craven, Village Historian Joyce Cole, and former Village Historian Dana White. Also joining us were Martha Mesiti, former Town Historian; Jane Botticelli and Regina Rafter of the Ossining Historic Cemeteries Conservancy; and Robert Stava from the Ossining Historical Society. Video by OPL's Louis Crisci.
Thank you to all our Local History experts for sharing their vast knowledge of the community!
Two hundred yards north of the intersection of Rte. 9 and Revolutionary Rd. lies a two-acre parcel of land where some of Ossining’s earliest history is buried. Sparta Cemetery is the oldest organized burial ground in Ossining, begun before the Revolutionary War. It is the final resting place of many of Ossining’s first settlers of English, Dutch, and French Huguenot heritage, Revolutionary War through World War II veterans, and the Old Leather Man. The oldest legible tombstone is that of five-year-old Sarah Ladew from 1764. The most recent interment was in 2007.
The Cemeteries of Westchester County by Patrick Raftery (2011)
Both volumes are in the Reference collection in the Ossining Library. They are written by the Westchester Historical Society librarian, and are the most comprehensive guide to cemeteries in the county.
The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow by Janie Couch-Allen; Elinor Griffith; Lyle Anderson (Photographer) (2011)
This Sleepy Hollow website provides information and details about the Old Dutch Church.
