HOT DEALS!

Had your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather been a God-fearing man living in these parts in 1697, he surely would have, one Sunday, dressed in his best Dutch burgher style and attended the first service for the newly-organized congregation of what today is known as the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow.

The oldest church in New York State, this colonial Dutch-style stone church, nestled on a knoll beside present-day Route 9 in Sleepy Hollow, actually dates from 1685. Built for Frederick Philipse, the Lord of the Manor of Philipsburg, to serve the spiritual needs of the good people of the Manor, its first congregation was officially organized 12 years later as part of the Reformed Church in America, with Guilliam Bertholf as pastor.

About 125 years later, in his classic tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving referred to this house of worship as "The Old Dutch Church," and the name stuck. Indeed, the church's presence figures rather prominently in the tale, as Ichabod Crane's fateful encounter with the Headless Horseman takes place on a nearby wooden bridge.

A Registered National Landmark, the church's interior is marked by an old-style high pulpit and sounding board (canopy). Old Bibles and three centuries' worth of church memorabilia are on display in the balcony. Of equal fascination is the burial ground adjacent to the church.

Headstones bearing a veritable Who's Who of old Dutch family names, as well as distinctive Dutch decorative elements, are laid out across the lawn. Eleanor Van Tassel Brush, reputedly Irving's inspiration for the character Katrina Van Tassel in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," is buried here. But the Old Dutch Church is more than just a monument to yesterday. It is very much a part of the spiritual life of a late-20th Century community of worshipers.

On special occasions - Christmas Eve, Easter morning and Sundays from mid-June through early September - services are held in the 300-year-old edifice. Most other services throughout the year take place in the more spacious Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, a colonial Greek-revival style building at 42 North Broadway in Tarrytown, about a mile south of the Old Dutch Church. Constructed in 1837 to serve a growing congregation, this "South" Church was, in its early years, served by the same pastor as the "North" Church.

However, in 1851, the joint congregation divided, forming The First Reformed Protestant Church of Tarrytown (Old Dutch Church) and The Second Reformed Protestant Church of Tarrytown (South Church). One hundred forty years later, in May 1991, the two congregations reunited as the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, currently presided over by Rev. Gerald Paul Vander Hart.

The tricentennial year kicked off on December 31, 1996 with a New Year's Eve service in the Old Dutch Church. The year's festivities rolled onward, including something to suit just about every possible taste: A George Washington Birthday Dinner (February), Palm Sunday Choir Cantata (March), Concert and High Tea (June), Country Chicken Dinner and Square Dance (September), Country Holiday Fair (early November).

But the indisputable high point of the Old Dutch Church's tricentennial year was the Service of Thanksgiving, held in mid-November, a day of music, prayer and proclamations, including special greetings sent from those latter-day "Lords of the Manor," President Bill Clinton and New York Governor George Pataki. Impressive, yes, but only to be expected when celebrating 300 years of earthly existence.