Art often appears in descriptions of Tarrytown, the Westchester County village that stands out from its wooded slope over the Hudson River.
Some compare the bustling business district along Main Street to a painting by Norman Rockwell. In fact, the tangle of ancient brick buildings with cafes and hardware stores on the street is reminiscent of the kind of small-town America that so bewitched the artist. Others say that the tightly packed houses of Tarrytown seem like a neighborhood story, that the place feels like a huge movie set.
Either way, the streets are laid out with a feel for the dramatic. Coming from the east, along Neperan Road, visitors meander past the tree-lined Tarrytown Lakes, then pass some of the village's finest Victorian houses before arriving at the great discovery: the sparkling river framed by hills to the west.
"You definitely get the Hudson River School vibe here," said Harrison Squires, referring to the art movement known for its romanticized landscapes. "You understand why all these guys painted these scenes."
Mr Squires, 32, a lawyer, moved his family to Tarrytown from a one-room partnership on the Upper West Side in August. But unlike some newcomers, they didn't flee Covid-19. Mr Squires and his wife, Amy Mittelman, 35, also a lawyer, came for more conventional reasons – the extra legroom – after their young daughter arrived. Her new four-bedroom, three-bathroom colonial home, which cost $ 1.2 million, is more comfortable.
Tarrytown – unlike other river villages the family looked at real estate including Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry – also had a remarkable racial and socio-economic mix, especially given its three square miles in size, said Mr Squires, echoing a sense of expressed to other residents.
"There is a sizable Black and Latino community and there are many workers too," said Ian Murphy, 38, a resident who works in the fashion industry. "It's a little bit of everything."
This diversity inspired Mr. Murphy and his wife, Dahlia Bouari, 37, a kindergarten teacher, to leave a one-bedroom Park Slope one-bedroom apartment with their young son for a three-bedroom house in Tarrytown, which cost $ 949,000.
"It's just quaint here," says Mr. Murphy, whose family moved in late September. "It's not as stuffy as other Westchester cities."
The village, which is in the northwest corner of Greenburgh town, can feel old-fashioned – about a third of the houses were built prior to 1939, according to census data – but there are also modern elements like Hudson Harbor, an upscale, multi-block condominium complex that follows a decade of development now hugging the river. On land that once stood an asphalt factory and a soy sauce factory, the nearly complete complex has delivered 219 condos since 2010, including single-story and townhouse units. (Another 56 units are in Sleepy Hollow next door, where a General Motors plant once stood.)
While the property's glass, stone, and brick facades and its park ribbons are praised, the main attraction may be the front and center views of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (which replaced the Tappan Zee), the lights of which change hue with the holidays like the Empire State Building in Manhattan, about 26 miles south.
"It's such an architectural work," said Gary Connolly, 53, a senior executive with the District Brokers' Association who bought a three-bedroom apartment in Tarrytown for $ 1.5 million in 2018 after renting years in White Plains. He shares the house with husband Rodnei Connolly, 47, a digital marketing manager, and a pair of golden retrievers who hop around on the unit's stone deck.
"Tarrytown," he said, "is such a quiet and idyllic place."
What you will find
Despite its small size – the village currently has fewer than 12,000 inhabitants according to current census data – Tarrytown appears in a number of popular books, including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the Washington Irving story about the put-upon teacher Ichabod Crane. The village, he wrote, lies “in the lap of one of those vast bays that cut the east bank of the Hudson, on the broad stretch of the river that ancient Dutch sailors called the Tappan Zee”.
Irving appears to have sold himself: he spent his last few decades in Sunnyside, a Dutch gabled house that is now a national landmark.
Tarrytown became famous as a millionaire colony more than a century ago, named after the captains of industry who built estates on its rolling hills at no cost. Modern versions are still on the rise, especially near Wilson Park, which had country roads until a few years ago. But most of the Gilded Age properties survived in other forms.
Carrollcliffe, the 45-room turreted property owned by Howard Carroll, former Washington correspondent for the New York Times, is now the Castle Hotel & Spa.
The higher the elevation, the more expensive the house – although Warehouse on Washington, a new condominium project in a former warehouse, is relying on strong demand for its three sea-level loft-style units.
The housing stock for all tastes also includes pre-war cooperatives like Broadway Arms and post-war cooperatives like Ridgecroft Estates. But the real treasures are the single-family houses from the 19th
Tarrytown residents are almost as diverse as the living conditions. According to census data, those who identify as white make up 59 percent of the population, while 24 percent identify as Latinos, 7 percent as Asians, and 6 percent as blacks.
What you will pay for
On September 20, according to Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, 24 homes, cooperatives and condominiums were up for sale at an average list price of $ 1.49 million. The cheapest was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit at the Tappan Manour Condominiums, a red-brick complex from the 1950s that was listed for $ 199,000. The most expensive, at $ 9 million, was a six-bedroom, Norman-style stone home built in 1926 on over five acres in Greystone on Hudson, a 23-floor gated community that was formerly a Gilded Age estate, military school, was. and a day camp. The work in progress Greystone project, which sold its first home in 2016, still has four locations available, said Andy Todd, the developer.
Prices have skyrocketed across the village. That year, through September 19, 38 single-family homes were sold at an average price of $ 1.14 million, according to Sotheby’s data. In the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, 46 homes were sold for an average of $ 820,000. That is a jump of 39 percent.
Sales in the co-op area were also strong. This year, 19 units sold for an average of $ 224,000, according to Sotheby’s, compared to 18 for an average of $ 189,000 in 2019. Condos were more stable, with 44 sales this year averaging $ 653,000 versus 42 sales in 2019 at $ 667,000.
"It was crazy, but the market is starting to normalize," said Francie Malina, an agent at Compass. "We're back to normal buyers who have to commute into town, not the ones who want to get out of the car for good."
The atmosphere
The vibe on Main Street seems inviting around the clock, coffee drinkers catching rays during the day, and music fans going to shows at night, although traffic can be an issue. Tarrytown Music Hall, a Queen Anne-style landmark that has operated continuously as a variety hall since it opened in 1885, is a destination. Acts included Melissa Etheridge, Levon Helm, and Jeff Tweedy. (The first live concert since the beginning of the pandemic took place in June with violinist Joshua Bell, said Björn Olsson, the theater's manager.)
A lesser-known option is the Jazz Forum, one of the few clubs dedicated to jazz in Westchester. The four-year-old, 90-seat performance hall, with a Brazilian focus, sells tickets for an average of $ 30 plus at least $ 10 for cocktails like caipirinhas.
One path through the trees could be the Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, which follows the course of pipes that once carried New York's drinking water.
And cyclists flock to the bike path at Cuomo Bridge, which offers a six-mile round-trip trip.
The schools
Tarrytown is covered by a chessboard of public school districts and has a few students attending school in the neighboring Greenburgh villages of Irvington and Elmsford. But even those designated for schools in Tarrytown are likely to attend classes at neighboring Sleepy Hollow in the Tarrytown neighborhood at some point.
A common sequence is the John Paulding School for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, followed by W.L. Morse School for first and second grades and then Washington Irving Intermediate for third through fifth grades.
After that, many attend Sleepy Hollow Middle School for sixth through eighth grades and then Sleepy Hollow High School, which enrolls and enrolls about 870 students 91 percent graduation rate in 2020 versus 85 percent nationwide. The SAT scores there during the 2020-21 school year were 565 in reading and writing and 565 in math, up from 530 and 528 nationwide.
The shuttle service
The Hudson Line of the Metro-North Railroad has a station in Tarrytown. Nine express trains depart between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. on weekdays. The drive to Grand Central Terminal takes 52 to 62 minutes; a monthly pass costs $ 322.
Several bus connections are also available. For $ 450 a year, residents can park in a parking lot or parking lot near the train station. (Non-residents pay $ 1,340.)
The history
On September 23, 1780, during the Revolutionary War, three local militiamen captured Major John André, a British spy who had hidden in his boot plans for the defense of West Point that Benedict Arnold had given him. The four hectare Patriots Park, now the scene of a popular farmers' market, is a reminder of this place. Its centerpiece, which stumbles under stone bridges, is called Andre Brook.
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