Sunnyside

Sunnyside was the residence of the American writer Washington Irving from 1835 until his death in 1859. The stone house was formerly known as Van Tassel cottage, and was located on the Hudson River below Tarrytown. He made improvements and modifications to the architecture of the house as well as the surrounding landscaping and garden design. According to the National Register of Historic Places, Irving “delighted in augmenting the picturesqueness of his house by creating several wandering paths which led the visitor through secluded groves and broad vistas of the Hudson River scenery…perhaps influenced by [his] neighbor, Andrew Jackson Downing, who mentioned Sunnyside in his 1841 Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape gardening in America.” In addition to these sylvan walks, Irving grew apples in his own orchard and cultivated flower and kitchen gardens laid out in geometric patterns which contrasted with the picturesque plan of the rest of the grounds.

Overview

Alternate Names: Van Tassel Cottage, Wolfert's Roost
Site Dates: The original Van Tassel cottage dates from the mid-to-late 1600's; Irving purchased the estate in 1835
Site Owner(s): Washington Irving (1783–1859)
Associated People: George Harvey (1800–1878; designer)
Location:Tarrytown, New York
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Texts

• Downing, A. J., 1841, describing Sunnyside (1841: 334–336)

"There is scarcely a building or place more replete with interest in America, than the cottage of Washington Irving, near Tarrytown. The 'legend of sleepy Hollow,' so delightfully told in the Sketch-Book, has made every one acquainted with this neighbourhood, and especially with the site of the present building, there celebrated as the "Van Tassel House," one of the most secluded and delightful nooks on the banks of the Hudson. With characteristic taste, Mr. Irving has chosen this spot, the haunt of his early days, since rendered classic ground by his elegant pen, and made it his permanent residence. The house of 'Baltus Van Tassel,' has been altered and rebuilt in a quaint style, partaking somewhat of the English cottage mode, but retaining strongly marked symptoms of its Dutch origin. The quaint old weathercocks and finials, the crow-stepped gables, and the hall paved with Dutch tiles, are among the ancient and venerable ornaments of the houses of the original settlers of Manhattan, now almost extinct among us. There is also a quiet-keeping in the cottage and the grounds around it, that assists in making up the charm of the whole: the gently swelling slope reaching down to the water's edge, bordered by prettily wooded ravines through which a brook meanders pleasantly; and threaded by foot-paths ingeniously contrived so as sometimes to afford secluded walks, and at others to allow fine vistas of the broad expanse of river scenery."

• Downing, A. J., 1844, describing Sunnyside (1844: 38, 380)

"At Tarrytown, is the cottage residence of Washington Irvings, which is, in location and accessories, almost the beau ideal of a cottage-ornée. The charming manner in which the wild foot-paths, in the neighborhood of this cottage, are conducted among the picturesque dells and banks, is precisely what one would look for here. . . .

"The cottage itself is now charmingly covered with ivy and climbing roses, and embosomed in thickets of shrubbery."

• Irving, Washington, February 5, 1846, in a letter to Mrs. Flora Foster Dawson (1864: 407–408)

"As to myself, on my return to America, I built me a pretty little cottage on the banks of the Hudson, in a beautiful country, and not far from my old haunts of Sleepy Hollow. Here I passed several years happily; my cottage well stocked with nieces, and enlivened by visits from friends and connections, having generally what is called in Scotland a houseful—that is to say, a circle more than it will hold. This state of things was too happy to last. I was unexpectedly called from it, by being appointed Minister to Madrid. It was a hard struggle for me to part from my cottage and my nieces, but I put all under charge of my brother, and promised to return at the end of three years. I have overstayed my time; nearly four years have elapsed. I understand my cottage is nearly buried among the trees I set out, and overrun with roses and honeysuckles and ivy from Melrose Abbey; and my nieces implore me to come back and save them from being buried alive in foliage. . . . When relieved from the duties and restraints of office, I shall make farewell visits to my friends in England and elsewhere; then ship myself for America, and hasten back to my cottage where everything is ready for my reception, and where I have but to walk in, hang up my hat, kiss my nieces, and take my seat in my elbow chair for the remainder of my life."

• Irving, Washington, May 20, 1851, in a letter to M. H. Grinnell (1864: 86–87)

"Sunnyside is possessed by seven devils, and I have to be continually on the watch to keep all from going to ruin. First, we have a legion of womenkind, cleaning and scouring the house from top to bottom; so that we are all reduced to eat and drink and have our being in my little library. In the midst of this, our water is cut off. An Irishman from your establishment undertook to shut up my spring, as he had yours, within brick walls; the spring showed proper spirit, and broke bounds, and all the water pipes ran dry in consequence. In the dearth of painters, I have employed a couple of country carpenters to paint my roofs, and it requires all my vigilance to keep them from painting them like Joseph's coat of divers colors. Your little man Westerfield is to plaster my chimneys to-morrow, and your plumbers and bellhangers to attack the vitals of the house. I have a new coachman, to be inducted into all the mysteries of the stable and coach house; so all that part of the establishment is in what is called a halla baloo. In a word, I never knew of such a tempest in a teapot as is just now going on in little Sunnyside. I trust, therefore, you will excuse me for staying at home to sink or swim with the concern."

• Irving, Washington, July 15, 1852, in a letter to Mrs. Storrow (1864: 107)

"I wish you could see little Sunnyside this season. I think it more beautiful than ever. The trees and shrubs and clambering vines are uncommonly luxuriant. We never had so many singing birds about the place, and the hummingbirds are about the windows continually, after the flowers of the honeysuckles and trumpet creepers which overhang them."

• Tuckerman, Henry T., 1853, describing Sunnyside (1853: 50–52)

"It is approached by a sequestered road, which enhances the effect of its natural beauty. A more tranquil and protected abode, nestled in the lap of nature, never captivated a poet's eye. Rising from the bank of the river, which a strip of woodland alone intercepts, it unites every rural charm to the most complete seclusion. From this interesting domain is visible the broad surface of the Tappan Zee; the grounds slope to the water's edge, and are bordered by wooded ravines; a clear brook ripples near, and several neat paths lead to shadowy walks or fine points of river scenery. The house itself is a graceful combination of the English cottage and the Dutch farm-house. The crow-stepped gables, the tiles in the hall, and the weathercocks, partake of the latter character; while the white walls gleaming through the trees, the smooth and verdant turf, and the mantling vines of ivy and clambering roses, suggest the former. Indeed, in this delightful homestead are tokens of all that is most characteristic of its owner. The simplicity and rustic grace of the abode indicate an unperverted taste,—its secluded position a love of retirement; the cottage ornaments remind us of his unrivalled pictures of English country-life; the weathercock that used to veer about on the Stadt-house of Amsterdam is a symbol of the fatherland; while the one that adorned the grand dwellings in Albany before the revolution, is a significant memorial of the old Dutch colonists; and they are thus both associated with the fragrant memory of that famous and unique historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. The quaint and beautiful are thus blended, and the effect of the whole is singularly harmonious. From the quietude of this retreat are obtainable the most extensive prospects; and while its sheltered position breathes the very air of domestic repose, the scenery it commands is eloquent of broad and generous sympathies. . . .

"And here, in the midst of a landscape his pen has made attractive in both hemispheres and of friends whose love surpasses the highest meed of fame, he lives in daily view of scenes thrice endeared—by taste, association, and habit;&madsh;the old locust that blossoms on the green bank in spring, the brook that sparkles along the grass, the peaked turret and vine-covered wall of that modest yet traditional dwelling, the favorite valley watered by the romantic Pocantoro, and, above all, the glorious river of his heart."

• Richards, T. Addison, December 1856, describing Sunnyside (1856: 7–11)

"It is a sweet scene of rural simplicity and comfort which is disclosed to us by either approach; as the open sunlit lawn, so affectionately embraced by its protecting trees and shrubbery, which, though permitting little peeps here and there from within, deny all vagrant observation from without. One can scarcely believe himself as thickly surrounded as he really is here by crowding cottage and castle, so entire is the repose and seclusion of the spot. Year ago, when Mr. Irving first took up his abode at Sunnyside, he was all alone by himself, yet now every inch of the adjacent country is gardened, and lawned, and villaed, to the extreme of modern taste and wealth; yet all so charmingly under the rose, that you always stumble upon the evidences unexpectedly, as you dreamingly pursue the thicket-covered and brook-voiced wood-paths. It is like the discovering of birds'-nests amidst forest leaves. Seen from the opposite shore of the river, the whole hillside is glittering with sun-tipped roof and tower, but like the Seven Cities of the Enchanted Island, it all vanishes as you approach.

"The cottage, with its crow-stepped gables and weathercocks, overrun with honey-suckle and eglantine, with the rose-vine and the clinging ivy, is a wonderfully unique little edifice, totally unlike any thing else in our land, but always calling up our remembrances or our fancies of merrie rural England, with a hint here and there at its old Dutch leaven; in the quaint weathercocks, for instance, one of which actually veered, in good old days gone by, over the great Vander Heyden Palace in Albany, and another on the top of the Stadt House of New Amsterdam. A lady would be apt to call the Sunnyside cottage 'the dearest, cosiest, cunningest, snuggest little nest in the world.' Mr. Irving describes it as 'a little old-fashioned stone mansion, all made up of gable-ends, and as full of angles and corners as an old cocked hat.' 'It is said, in fact,' he continues, 'to have been modeled after the cocked hat of Peter the Headstrong, as the Escurial was modeled after gridiron of the blessed St. Lawrence.' . . . .

"Before the intrusion of the railroad, which has profaned so much of the river shore, the quiet beach, with its little cove, into which a rural lane debouched, was one of the sweetest features of Sunnyside. This part of the domain is beautifies by a sparkling spring, draped, like all the region round, as we shall see by-and-by, in the fairy web of romantic fable. . . .

"The acres of Sunnyside, all told, are not many; and yet so varied is their surface, so richly wooded and flowered, and so full of elfish winding paths and grassy lanes, exploring hillsides and chasing merry brooks, that their numbers seem to be countless; a pleasant deception greatly aided by that agreeable community of feeling between Mr. Irving and his neighbors, which has so banished all dividing walls and fences, that while you think you are roaming over the grounds of one, you suddenly bring up among the flower-beds of another. . . .

"The woodland of Sunnyside is very happily varied, offering every variety of sylvan growth, beech, birch, willow, oak, locust, maple, elm, linden, pine, hemlock, and cedar; while on the lawns are evergreen and flowering shrubs; and, trailing over the vagrant walls and fences, honey-suckle, rose, trumpet-flowers, and ivy. The latter plant, which is very abundant, is of the famous stock of Melrose Abbey. The garden, which in keeping with its surroundings, is watched by a favorite retainer, for whom Mr. Irving has built a snug cottage, fronting the lawn in the face of his own mansion. This little edifice is especially interesting, from its having been designed by Mr. Irving himself; his only venture, he once told us, as an architect. . . .

"Separated from the lawn around the cottage by the belt of trees in which stands the gardener's dwelling, is another open area occupied by a pretty lakelet 'expansion' of the brook—an echo of the great bay beyond. The painter gives unity, and harmony, and force to his picture by distributing throughout the work its leading sentiment or story and its prevailing color; so, in the artistic composition of Sunnyside, its chief feature, the great 'Mediterranean' of the river, as Mr. Irving calls the Tappan Bay, with its fleet of white sails thick as the passing clouds, is repeated by the little 'Mediterranean' of the brooklet and its fleet of snowy ducks. . . .

"The air of graceful simplicity and cozy comfort which so strongly marks the exterior of the Sunnyside cottage, is felt quite as vividly within doors. It is cut up into just such odd, snug little apartments and boudoirs as the rambling, low-walled, peak-roofed, and gable-ended outside promises. The state entrance is by the porch at the south end; the household exit is from the drawing-room, across the piazza, to the lawn on the east or river front. It is on this side of the cottage that the family chat or read the news of the great world, away, on summer days and nights. On the north side of the drawing-room there is a delightful little recess, forming a boudoir some six or eight feet square, the whole front of which is occupied by a window looking across the lawn, and through the up-river vista chronicled in our portfolio It is, in summer, neatly matted and furnished with little stands of books, and flowers, and statuettes, and the low-toned walls are hung with drawings and sketches by Leslie, Stuart Newton, and others—mementoes of Mr. Irving's sojournings and friendships in England—with some of Darley's admirable etchings from Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It is a little nook which you would set down at once as under special female guardianship. . . .

"The graceful simplicity which marks the appointments of this Lilliputian sanctum is seen through all the furniture and adornments of the mansion. The spirit throughout is that of refinement without affectation, elegance without display, comfort without waste."

Images

• 

  George Harvey, The Old Cottage Taken Previous to Improvement, c. 1835.

• 

  A. J. Downing, "Residence of Washington Irving, Esq. near Tarrytown, NY", in A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1849), p. 409, fig. 59.

• 

  George Inness, Sunnyside, c. 1850–60.

Other Resources

Historic Hudson Valley