Exploring the Rivertowns’ Cemeteries - Sample

Discover Their Famous “Residents”

In large part due to the publication of Washington Irving’s classic tale, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” lower Westchester County is closely associated with one of America’s favorite holidays: Halloween.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. (visitwestchester.ny.com)

Americans spent an estimated $10.6 million in 2022 on the holiday, second only to Christmas. A large portion of that total went toward decorating homes, including creating faux cemeteries in front yards to help establish a ghostly atmosphere.

The Rivertowns, however, contain real and historic cemeteries adorned with magnificent sculptures and mausoleums that provide the final resting places for several well-known celebrities, public figures, and titans of industry, many with local ties. Strolling through these cemeteries—currently covered with a lush layer of the autumn foliage—will put you in the Halloween spirit while introducing you to the “neighbors” you might not have realized are in our communities.

Find a Grave® (www.findagrave.com) is a website where you can locate burial information for individuals. Here are some of the famous people that this site has identified as being buried in three of the Rivertowns’ largest cemeteries.



Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

540 North Broadway, Sleepy Hollow - (914) 631-0081.

www.sleepyhollowcemetery.org


Incorporated in 1849, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is nestled among the historic sites of Philipsburg Manor and the former location of the Headless Horseman Bridge (which is now designated by a marker). The cemetery is adjacent to the Old Dutch Church and Burial Grounds, which were founded around 1685, and are featured in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The grave of the story’s author, Washington Irving, is the most visited site in the cemetery.

Sleepy Hollow is a non-sectarian cemetery that has achieved Level 1 Arboretum Accreditation status and is listed in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. Tours are available, and tickets may be purchased at the website above.

Andrew Carnegie gravesite. (Wikipedia)

Interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery are notables such as:

  • Viola Allen (1869–1948), actor

  • Elizabeth Arden (1878–1966), cosmetic industry pioneer, executive

  • Brooke Astor (1902–2007), philanthropist

  • Vincent Astor (1891–1959), financier, businessman, philanthropist

  • Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863–1944), scientist, inventor

  • Robert Livingston Beeckman (1866–1935), Rhode Island governor

  • Holbrook Blinn (1872–1928), actor

  • Artur Bodanzky (1877–1939), conductor

  • Edward Bowes (1874–1946), radio entertainer

  • Alice Brady (1892–1939), actor

  • Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), industrialist, steel magnet, philanthropist

  • Walter Percy Chrysler (1875–1940), founder and president of Chrysler Corporation

  • Francis Pharcellus Church (1839–1906), journalist; editor at the New York Sun

  • William Douglas (1853–1944), U.S. congressman

  • Parker W. Fennelly (1891–1988), actor

  • Samuel Gompers (1850–1924), labor leader

  • Gabriel Grant (1826–1909), Civil War Medal of Honor recipient

  • Moses Hicks Grinnell (1803–1877), U.S. congressman; married to Julia Irving, Washington Irving’s niece

  • James Frederick Hall (1823–1884), Civil War Union Brevet brigadier general

  • Robert Havell, Jr. (1793–1878), chief engraver for John James Audubon’s Birds of America; Hudson River School painter

  • Mark Hellinger (1903–1947), journalist, screenwriter, producer

  • Harry B. Helmsley (1909–1997), real estate mogul, philanthropist

  • Leona Mindy Rosenthal Helmsley (1920–2007), real estate mogul, hotel operator

  • George Washington Hill (1884–1946), businessman; introduced the Lucky Strikes brand of cigarettes

  • Washington Irving (1783–1859), author, lawyer, diplomat

  • William Irving (1766–1821), U.S. congressman; eldest brother of Washington Irving

  • William Sergeant Kendall (1869–1938), artist, painter

  • Charles Dunsmore Millard (1873–1944), U.S. congressman

  • Darius Ogden Mills (1825–1910), businessman, philanthropist

  • Frank Moser (1886–1964), motion picture cartoonist and director

Belle Moskowitz gravesite. (NY Patch)

  • Belle Moskowitz (1877–1933), political advisor, social activist

  • Nathanial Holmes Odell (1828–1904), U.S. congressman

  • Peter A. Peyser (1921–2014), U.S. congressman

  • Ogden Rogers Reid (1925–2019), U.S. congressman

  • Whitelaw Reid (1837–1912), journalist, editor at the New York Tribune

  • William Rockefeller (1841–1922), co-founder of Standard Oil Company

  • Francis Saltus (1849–1889), poet

  • Carl Christian Schurz (1829–1906), political leader, newspaper editor

  • Orlando Jay Smith (1842–1908), journalist

  • William Griggs Stahlnecker (1849–1902), U.S. congressman

  • William Boyce Thompson (1869–1930), business magnate

  • Frederick Eugene Trotter (1838–1892), Civil War Union brevet brigadier general

  • Joseph Urban (1872–1933), architect, designer

  • Henry Villard (1835–1900), executive at Northern Pacific Railroad and General Electric

  • Oswald Garrison Villard, Sr. (1872–1949), journalist, social reformer

  • William Adams Walker (1805–1861), U.S. congressman

  • Paul Moritz Warburg (1868–1932), businessman, board member of U.S. Federal Reserve and Council on Foreign Relations; alleged to have been the model for Daddy Warbucks in the Little Orphan Annie comic strip series

  • Worcester Reed Warner (1846–1929), scientist

  • Henry Walter Webb (1852–1900), railroad executive, philanthropist

  • Walker Whiteside (1869–1942), actor 

Mount Hope Cemetery

50 Jackson Avenue, Hastings-on-Hudson - (914) 478-1855

www.mounthopecemetery.com


Founded in 1886, Mount Hope Cemetery is a non-sectarian cooperative association. The cemetery is home to over 40 labeled species of trees and a variety of birds, including red-tailed hawks, pileated woodpeckers, and eastern bluebirds. It is also a member of the National Audubon Society.

The 71st Regiment National Guard of the State of New York is one of many historical organizations represented at Mount Hope. In addition, these well-known individuals are buried there:

  • Clarence Adler (1886–1969), pianist

  • Eliot Asinof (1919–2008), author

  • Donald Mayer Blinken (1925–2022), diplomat; father of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

  • Dion Boucicault (1822–1890), playwright, actor

  • Ernie Bushmiller (1905–1982), cartoonist

  • Jacob Aaron Cantor (1854–1921), U.S. congressman

  • Carmen Cavallaro (1913–1989), pianist, conductor, composer

  • Kenneth B. Clark (1914–2005), psychologist, professor, civil rights activist

  • Frederic Dannay (1905–1982), author

  • Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956), painter

  • Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869–1954), composer

  • Danny Gardella (1920–2005), baseball player

  • Alfred Harvey (1913–1994), comic book publisher, animation producer

  • Thomas Jordan (1819–1895), Civil War Confederate brigadier general

  • Rose Virginia Scott McClendon (1884–1936), actor

  • Thomas Peck Ochiltree (1837–1902), U.S. congressman

  • Gloria Sachs (1927–2012), fashion designer

  • Nathan Schachner (1895–1955), author

  • Herman Tarnower (1910–1980), physician, author

  • Bill Todman (1916–1979), television producer

  • Lucile Watson (1879–1962), actor 

Westchester Hills Cemetery

400 Saw Mill River Road, Hastings-on-Hudson.

(914) 478-1767

www.swfs.org/about/westchester-hills-cemetery/


Westchester Hills Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery founded in 1919 by the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue located at 30 West 68th Street in Manhattan. The cemetery occupies what was originally the northern part of Mount Hope Cemetery, which remains its next-door neighbor. 

This cemetery is the final resting place for the following people: 

Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (swfs.org)

  • Mischa Elman (1891–1967), violinist

  • John Garfield (1913–1952), actor

  • George Gershwin (1898–1937), composer

  • Ira Gershwin (1896–1983), lyricist

  • Robert “Red” Ginzler (1910–1962), Broadway orchestrator

  • Ben Grauer (1908–1977), television and radio personality

  • Sidney Hillman (1887–1946), labor leader

  • Judy Holliday (1921–1965), actor

  • Richard Lindner (1901–1978), painter

  • Lucille Lortel (1900–1999), actor, producer

  • Roberta Peters (1930–2017), opera singer

  • George Edwards “Georgie” Price (1901–1964), entertainer, vaudeville star, recording artist

  • Tony Randall (1920–2004), actor

  • Max Reinhardt (1873–1943), actor, director

  • Harold J. Rome (1908–1993), composer, lyricist

  • Billy Rose (1899–1966), theatrical producer

  • A. M. Rosenthal (1922–2006), Pulitzer Prize recipient, journalist

  • William Rosenwald (1903–1996), philanthropist

  • Robert Rossen (1908–1966), director, screenwriter, producer

  • Bela Schick (1877–1967), pediatrician

  • Ron Silver (1946–2009), actor

  • Lee Strasberg (1901–1982), actor, director, acting instructor

  • Paula Miller Strasberg (1909–1966), actor

  • Maxine Marietta Williams Sullivan (1911–1987), jazz vocalist, entertainer

  • David Susskind (1920–1987), entertainer, producer

  • Laurence Alan Tisch (1923–2003), chief executive officer of CBS television network, co-chairman of Loews Theaters

  • Preston Robert Tisch (1926–2005), financier, co-chairman of Loews Theaters

This partial list of prominent people buried in the Rivertowns leaves more for you to discover. Take time this fall to walk through the area’s historic cemeteries and enjoy the colorful leaves, view artistic monuments and wildlife, and find famous and—in some cases—infamous people from the past.