Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow as seen in the 1949 Disney film, "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad".

Sleepy Hollow (alternatively known as North Tarrytown in real-life) is a semi-fictional village with connections to the Haunted Mansion.

Description

Background

Sleepy Hollow is a village found in the Hudson River Valley in New York. The village was settled by Dutch colonists lead by Henrik Hudson (1565-c. 1611) in the mid 17th century on land stolen from indigenous tribes (likely of the Delaware or Iroquois peoples) and according to local legend, a native named Sachem cursed the land to punish the colonists. The nature of this curse was supposedly isolated the village, caused all of those who lived in the town to be stuck in a perpetual dream-like trance while also allowing for the locale to be filled with ghosts and other paranormal spirits.

The colonial residents of the village were well acquainted and content with their apparent supernatural village, treating the superstitions regarding it as absolute fact with an unfazed attitude about it. Ghost stories were treated like history by the locals such as those of the White Woman of Raven Rock who died in a snowstorm seeking shelter in a rock resembling a raven and whose wails herald blizzards, British major Major John André (1751-1780) who is said by locals to have died when a lighting bolt struck a tulip-tree from which he was resting, and the haunted mansion of Wolfhert's Roost which belonged to the late deacon of Wolfhert Acker (1667–1753) who had died and been buried under the floorboards of the Sleepy Hollow church.

Most famous of the ghosts however were those of the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane. The Headless Horseman was said to be the ghost of a hessian soldier who served the British in the American Revolutionary War and who fought in the battle of White Plans outside of Sleepy Hollow in the year 1776. According to legend, the horseman was killed when he had his head blown off by a cannon-ball, launching it into the dense wetlands known to locals as Wiley's Swamp. The horseman was buried in an Old Dutch Cemetery but is said to roam the hollow at night, searching for his head or one to replace it. Ichabod Crane was a yankee schoolmaster from the late 18th century who pursued the hand of the fair and wealthy Katrina van Tassel only to find himself spirited away one Halloween night by the Headless Horseman. While it is believed that Ichabod survived and simply fled the town, locals dismiss such accounts as evidently believe that his ghost is bound to the hollow at night trying to escape the horseman's wrath.

Origins

Sleepy Hollow was a pseudonym for the real life village of Tarrytown, New York in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County. In 1820, town-resident Washington Irving wrote, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which became a popular piece of American literature that popularized the village in pop-culture as a place of paranormal-activity. Irving additionally used Tarrytown as a setting for his ghost-story anthology A Chronicle of Wolfhert's Roost which elaborated on the village's story. The village cemetery known as the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery additionally holds the resting place of Washington Irving.

Notable Adaptations

• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: This 1949 Disney film adapted the story of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the second-half of the movie. While in the original story it is heavily implied that the horseman was merely Ichabod's rival Abraham "Brom Bones" van Brunt disguised as the ghost, this movie left it completely ambiguous.
• Sleepy Hollow: Sleepy Hollow was the titular setting of this 1999 Tim Burton film, loosely based on the original story as a sort of dark-fantasy thriller and homage/pastiche of the, "Hammer Horror" films of the 1950s.
  • This film features a cameo from Jack Skellington in the form of a scarecrow, similar to the one found in Haunted Mansion Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare.

Haunted Mansion Connections

Unused Concepts

The Headless Horseman was once intended to be a prominent character in the Haunted Mansion, attending the wedding of Mlle. Vampire and Monsieur Bogyman. When Vampire would grow cold-feet and flee the wedding, the Horseman would have attacked guests only for them to be saved by the Lonesome Ghosts.

Development

Sleepy Hollow was a major source of inspiration behind the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World. Given the new colonial setting of Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom as opposed to the gothic New Orleans setting of New Orleans Square in Disneyland. Sleepy Hollow was frequently cited as an inspiration behind the new mansion's setting, even being canonically placed in the Hudson River Valley in New York. The mansion was given dutch architecture to resemble a, "Stately old house" such as the Van Tassel residence/Wolfhert's Roost from Irving's stories.

On the Liberty Belle Riverboat on the Rivers of America, the ride's narrator Sam Clemens (1835-1910) would mention how the mansion is said to have been built on a Native American burial ground. This is a motif common in American horror but which could be lifted from the backstory of Sleepy Hollow in Irving's works.

In Tokyo Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion maintains its colonial Dutch architecture but is relocated from Liberty Square to Fantasyland. This is notable as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is considered to be a fairy-tale which Fantasyland orients itself towards.

The Sleepy Hollow Inn in Walt Disney World

References

Multiple allusions to Washington Irving's ghost story, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow can be found in Liberty Square. While located in the same land, it is unlikely that the village which holds the New York version of the Haunted Mansion, Memento Mori and the Columbia Harbour House is located within Sleepy Hollow but could very likely be found within its vicinity, potentially even in Westchester County.

• An advertisement for Music & Voice Lessons can be seen by the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, being held by the story's protagonist Ichabod Crane.

• The Sleepy Hollow Inn obviously takes its name from the story. In addition to this, the logo for the shop depicts Headless Horseman. The store is dated to 1790 which is the year that the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set in. The building is also inspired by the real-life, "Sunnyside" which was the basis for Wolfhert's Roost where Irving stayed in Tarrytown.
• Outside of the Sleepy Hollow Inn there used to be parcels addressed to Ichabod Crane and Abraham "Brom Bones" van Brunt, both of whom are characters from the book. The crates also state that Brom lives in, "Ma Irving's Boarding House" as an allusion to the story's author Washington Irving.
• A window near Sleepy Hollow Inn has the Halloween party guest list possessed by Katrina Van Tassel in the film. The list mentions Hans van Ripper, Brom Bones, Ichabod Crane, and Dofue Martling who are all book characters. Near the list is an open locket, curiously containing a photo of both Katrina and Ichabod as they appeared in their animated Disney incarnations. The list is also strangely resting on an open text of Washington Irving's story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Trivia

• Coincidentally, the Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion has a tombstone dedicated to Mr. Toad found in its Pet Cemetery. Mr. Toad was one of the protagonists from the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad from which the Disney Sleepy Hollow was originally featured.
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was once proposed to have its own ride in Walt Disney World's Fantasyland but this was ultimately opted out in favour for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.