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Pocantico Hills

Celebrate the Season with Dickens’s ‘Christmas Carol’

November 19, 2024 by Inside Press

Popular event, holiday shopping and site tours add to winter fun

Sleepy Hollow, NY  – Hudson Valley families can get into the spirit of the holiday season by attending dramatic performances of Dickens’s ‘Christmas Carol’ at the historic Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow on select weekends in December. Performances take place on Dec. 7-8, 14-15, 21-22.

Master storyteller Jonathan Kruk, along with musical accompaniment by Jim Keyes, tells the Charles Dickens story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and Tiny Tim in a joyous rendition of the holiday classic, produced by Historic Hudson Valley.

Visitors to the region will also be able to enjoy tours of Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, which will have festive decorations for the season, Philipsburg Manor, and Union Church of Pocantico Hills on weekends in December.

The Museum Shops at Philipsburg Manor and Washington Irving’s Sunnyside will be open on Saturdays and Sundays through December 22. Holiday shoppers are invited to browse local wares and support Historic Hudson Valley’s educational programs while checking off their entire gift list. Stocked with Hudson Valley-inspired and holiday-themed merchandise–including artisan foods, books about the region, exclusive candles, and handcrafted jewelry–the shelves are full of unique items for everyone that can’t be found anywhere else.

All tickets for the following events are available at hudsonvalley.org

Details: Dickens’s ‘Christmas Carol’
Performances take place at the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow on December 7-8, 14-15, 21-22 at 2:30, 3:45, 5pm. 

Capacity is limited for Dickens’s ‘Christmas Carol’ and tickets should be purchased in advance at www.hudsonvalley.org or by calling 914-366-6900. Ticket prices are $47 for adults and $42 for children under 18. Historic Hudson Valley recommends the event for ages 10 and up. Members of Historic Hudson Valley receive a 15% per ticket discount.

Details: Winter Tours of Philipsburg Manor

In 1750, Philipsburg Manor was home to 23 enslaved individuals known to have lived and labored there. It is the country’s first living history museum to focus on the history of northern slavery.

The site will be open for guided tours and the museum shop will be open Saturday-Sunday, December 7-December 22. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and young adults, and $13 for children. Tours are free for Historic Hudson Valley Members. Admission is by timed ticket only.

Philipsburg Manor is at 381 North Broadway (Route 9) in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., two miles north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Details: Winter Tours of Union Church of Pocantico Hills

Union Church was organized as a non-denominational Protestant church in 1915, with John D. Rockefeller among the founders. Over the years, the Rockefeller family commissioned stained-glasses windows by European masters Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall to adorn the unassuming country church.

The site will be open for guided tours Saturday-Sunday, December 7-December 22. Tickets are $10. Tours are free for Historic Hudson Valley Members. Admission is by timed ticket only.

Union Church of Pocantico Hills is at 555 Bedford Road, Tarrytown.

Details: Winter Tours of Washington Irving’s Sunnyside

America’s “Founding Father of Literature” and inventor of many Christmas traditions created this romantic, picturesque estate nestled along the Hudson riverbank. The house and the furnishings, many of which are original to Irving, have been restored to their 1850s character.

The site will be open for guided tours and the museum shop will be open Saturday-Sunday December 7-22.  Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and young adults, and $13 for children. Tours are free for Historic Hudson Valley members. Admission is by timed ticket only.

Washington Irving’s Sunnyside is at 3 W Sunnyside Lane, Irvington, one mile south of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

About Historic Hudson Valley
Historic Hudson Valley, Westchester County’s largest cultural organization, educates and entertains more than hundreds of thousands of visitors a year through school programs, tours of five National Historic Landmarks, and large-scale events like The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.

From its lower Hudson Valley base of operations, the organization focuses on delivering quality educational and entertaining experiences, striking a balance between tradition and vision, from preserving the past, to contextualizing it for 21st-century audiences,
Historic Hudson Valley operates tours and public programming at Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, Philipsburg Manor, Union Church of Pocantico Hills, Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, and Van Cortlandt Manor. These sites help us make meaning for visitors in a variety of settings, including traditional house and landscape tours, formal educational programs for school children, popular on-site special events, and digital media.

News and photo courtesy of Historic Hudson Valley

Filed Under: Happy Holidays Tagged With: Charles Dickens, Christmas Entertainment, Christmas Event, Historic Hudson Valley, Philipsburg Manor, Pocantico Hills, Sleepy Hollow, Sunnyside

The JOY of School Theater

May 31, 2019 by Jennifer Sabin Poux

Photo by PhotoWorks of Pleasantville

As the recorded soundtrack kicked in and the curtain opened on the stage at Pocantico Hills School, my eyes welled up. What the hell? I hadn’t had a kid there for four years. Seated in the refurbished auditorium with a friend to watch the middle school production of A Lion King, I surreptitiously dabbed at my eyes. I tended to shed a tear or two whenever my own children took the stage, but I didn’t know 95 percent of the kids in the show. Why was I getting emotional? It took me a few minutes to figure out that I was in the throes of an almost-empty-nester moment, a multi-sensory reminder of where my kids had been, where their love of theater had started, and with one in college and one about to go, it brought up a lot for me.

It was also just weeks since I’d watched my son play Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Briarcliff High School, the final three performances of his high school career. I was filled with pride, but also gratitude. The Briarcliff theater department had given my son, my daughter before him, and my family more than any of us could have predicted over the course of seven years. It was difficult to part.

Having enjoyed performing in the musicals at Pocantico under the direction of the wonderful Sheila DePaola, my children sought out theater in high school. And there they discovered much more than an after-school activity. They found their closest friends, their community. And they found passionate teachers and mentors.

Briarcliff’s program, which involves a fall drama, spring musical and a show of one-acts, is devoted as much to theater education as to the production itself. The outstanding director of the program, Ian Driver, loves the process of creation and development, and as a committed child-centered educator, he takes his students on the ride with him, always a great adventure that culminates in an incredibly enriching and collaborative theater experience.

Whether Shakespeare or musical comedy, theater depends on collaboration. A show is the epitome of team effort, and each member must pull his weight and honor her commitment to the whole for the show to come together successfully. With each production, the students gain a broader understanding of storytelling, the power of music, the tension of drama, the satisfaction of problem solving and the magic of performance. And they gain confidence. There is comfort in numbers. Teenagers who have never taken a dance lesson become tap dancers, in an ensemble. Students who have never swung a hammer become carpenters, part of a crew.

The theater welcomes budding divas and other talented young adults, some with beautiful voices, some with an innate gift for acting, some with excellent comic timing. But it also beckons the shy and the disenfranchised, the student who hasn’t enjoyed social acceptance in other spheres of school but finds belonging in building the set, singing in the chorus or playing in the pit. Theater can also bridge socio-economic and racial divides.

At Pocantico, almost every middle school student, regardless of their background, participates in the show, making those differences less apparent. The theater provides a home for those with artistic impulses but no other place to discover or exercise them. It’s a place to develop skills that may lead to a career or just wonderful memories. Ultimately, school theater programs offer students a unique, close-knit, artistic community that embraces differences, something not always found in the prevailing suburban sports culture.

We raise our kids here because of the excellent schools, the beautiful setting, an escape from the stresses of city living. But for some kids, the suburbs can become stifling and one-dimensional by the time they reach high school. Theater offers kids an escape from the mundane, an outlet that reaches beyond the confines of school. It also instills in them a love and reverence for the performing arts, something they can enjoy the rest of their lives.

The first time I teared up in the theater with one of my children was 14 years ago, when I took my daughter to see Beauty and the Beast; she was just seven or so. It was her first Broadway show, and it moved me to watch her react to the spectacle on stage, to remember the shows I saw as a child.

I have been moved by my own kids over the course of their childhoods as they performed in 25 productions and counting. I was moved by the realization that they worked so hard through the hours of repetition and waiting, the frustrations and obstacles, to reach that sweet moment when the orchestra plays the first notes of the overture, the curtain falls away, and they transform into characters inhabiting another time and place. That’s when I always feel a catch in my throat. The artistry and confidence they and their cast mates will exude over the next two or three hours never fails to blow me away. But mostly, I am grateful that they have known what it is to be part of something big and beautiful.

Photo By PhotoWorks of Pleasantville


 

Filed Under: Gotta Have Arts Tagged With: Briarcliff High School, car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, kids, performance, Plays, Pocantico Hills, school, School Theater

A Bucolic Westchester Jewel that’s Fit for a Rockefeller

March 8, 2019 by Shauna Levy

Tucked away in Sleepy Hollow, only 30 miles north of New York City, the beloved jewel known as the Rockefeller State Park Preserve is resplendent in the natural beauty for which Westchester is renowned. It is, however, distinguished by a storied history and the meticulous support of the Rockefeller family.

The property, formerly the Pocantico Hills and Rockwood Hall country estates of the John D. Rockefeller family and William Rockefeller, dates back to 1886. In 1983, the Rockefeller Family generously donated over 1425 acres to the State of New York to safeguard these lands for future generations.

Today, the Preserve is home to forests, fields, streams, and wetlands that support a high diversity of native species of resident and migratory birds, mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish and aquatic species. Managed by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the Preserve is open to the public year-round, sunrise to sunset.

Friends Who Are Family

In 1996, to provide additional support to protect the Preserve, George Gumina, established the Friends of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. Serving as president and founder, Gumina is also a Rockefeller family member as his wife is the granddaughter of Nelson Rockefeller.

PHOTO BY JOE GOLDEN

Preserving the land is personal for him as he explains, “Since Uncle John donated the land to the state, Aunt Peggy acted as a steward of the land. It was her primary residence and she loved the land. When she passed, with the family’s support, I began the ‘Friends’ group in her honor.” The organization actively supports educational programs, major exhibits and maintaining the preserve’s unique system of its lovely carriage roads.

Those funds are instrumental in the upkeep of the extensive network of carriage roads that characterize the park. The well-engineered 16-foot-wide, crushed-stone, network of 65-mile carriage roads were designed by John D. Rockefeller Sr. and his son, John D. Jr., over a 40-plus year period from 1910 into the 1950s. The winding roads overlook stunning vistas and serve as the signature feature of the preserve.

Gumina adds, “The carriage roads are what bring everyone here. From Day One, these roads were built for the public to enjoy–they were never just for the family. They are ideal for runners, pedestrians, horseback and carriage riding. You could walk on wide, manicured roads for miles and bring your dogs without worrying about ticks.” Over 400,000 visitors concur and visit the roads from all around the world each year.

PHOTO BY JESSIKA CREEDON

Noble Endeavors

The Friends group hosts several fundraising events throughout the year, but the Peony Celebration, an annual cocktail event held in May, is one of the largest fundraisers. The peony garden was donated by a town in Shimane Prefecture, Japan following the tragedy of September 11th to express a gesture of healing and solidarity towards the United States. They sent a gift of 500 peonies, considered to be Japan’s “most noble of flowers.”

Planting this garden was a culmination of true partnership. The Friends initiated a major landscaping project around the park’s gateway to provide a worthy site for this generous gift, while gardeners from Japan came to plant the flowers and teach the preserve staff how to care for them. Each year, it serves as the stunning backdrop to raise funds for the Friends’ ongoing initiatives.

Gumina explains the importance of such events saying, “The state has an $8M endowment donated by the family that many parks do not enjoy that supplements budgetary needs, but maintaining the intricate details of this special property is costly. That’s why the family remains present to provide as much support as we can with four family members actively on the board. This year, we hope to raise enough funds to refurbish Brother’s Path, named for Uncle David and Uncle Laurance, which circles Swan Lake.”

PHOTO BY JESSIKA CREEDON

Preserving Beauty for Generations

Rockefeller State Park Preserve recently celebrated a major milestone! The New York State Historic Review Board unanimously designated it as a State National Registry of Historic Places listed in Washington D.C., in recognition of the unique beauty and character of the carriage roads.

According to Gumina, the accolade is well-earned, “I call it the Central Park of Westchester, although I think it’s much nicer than Central Park–I’ve been there. From the carriage roads to Swan Lake to the wonder of its natural setting, it’s just absolutely stunning. It’s a beautiful backdrop for being active as well as those who simply wish to sit and meditate. It’s quite magnificent.”

Filed Under: Pleasantville Cover Stories Tagged With: Carriage Roads, Historic Preservation, Jewel, Nature, New York State Office of Parks, Pocantico Hills, recreation, Rockefeller Preserve, Sleepy Hollow, trees

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