Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse
This authentic, circa-1850 one-room schoolhouse served as a public school for the Town of Kinderhook into the 1940s. It replaced an earlier “log cabin-style” single-room school where a man named Jesse Merwin served as schoolmaster. Merwin, who was a longtime friend of the writer Washington Irving, is said to have been the “pattern” for Irving’s character of Ichabod Crane in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
Location: 2589 NY-9H, Kinderhook, NY 12106
Admission:
Suggested donation of $10; free for children, students, active military & family with current ID, and CCHS Members
A “Legends & Lore” historic marker, awarded by the New York Folklore Society and William G. Pomeroy Foundation, stands a few yards from the school and commemorates this literary connection. Today, the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse is a seasonal museum. See exhibitions, period school desks and other objects relating to one-room schoolhouse education in Columbia County.
History of the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse
The Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse was initially constructed circa 1850 at the intersection of NY-9H and Fischer Road as the District #6 Schoolhouse for the town of Kinderhook. It was the second school built on that site, replacing the original log cabin school where Jesse Merwin — long thought to be the inspiration for Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” — served as schoolmaster. The school was closed in the 1940s when the local school district centralized.
During the 1950s and ’60s, it was saved from disrepair by a group of local women who retrofitted the space to function as an ad hoc community center. In 1952, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the schoolhouse to deliver a radio address praising “the work of women” and recognizing their efforts to preserve the historic school.
In 1974, the schoolhouse was moved 200 yards down the road to the Luykas Van Alen House site. That same decade, it was restored to its 1930s appearance. It remains an excellent and intact example of a rural, one-room schoolhouse with a gable roof, clapboard siding and a single pent-roofed entrance. The interior consists of a large classroom with two adjacent cloakrooms — one for boys and one for girls. The building was never modified to have heat or hot water and still retains its original 1929 wood-burning stove, wood flooring, chalkboards and double-hung sash windows.
Listen to Eleanor Roosevelt's 1952 radio address:
Oral History Interviews with Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse Alums
Also On Site
Dutch Farming Heritage Trail
Explore the farmlands of Kinderhook’s early Dutch settlers on this 1.7-mile walking trail linking the Luykas Van Alen House to Martin Van Buren’s Lindenwald.
Early Heritage Narrative Walk
This permanent outdoor exhibition explores the multifaceted history of Columbia County through nine interpretive panels.
Luykas Van Alen House
The 1737 Luykas Van Alen House in Kinderhook, NY is recognized as one of the best remaining examples of a Dutch Colonial farmhouse in the Hudson Valley.
Land Acknowledgement
Our sites are located on ancestral lands of the Muh-He-Con-Neok, “the People of the Waters that Are Never Still”. Called Mohicans by the English, these people are now officially known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. They have a rich and illustrious history which has been retained through oral tradition and the written word.
