“Happy Birthday, Dear Washington…”

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Actor Aaron Newcome regales partygoers as Washington Irving's ghost

April 6, 2025

By Barrett Seaman–

His actual birthday was on April 3^rd, but Saturday, April 5^th was more convenient for a party where dozens of his admirers gathered in Christ Church San Marcos in Tarrytown to honor Washington Irving, considered America’s most renowned 19^th century writer who was also a Tarrytown resident.

Historical Society Curator Sarah Mascia led a presentation of Irving’s connection to the village and the church, where he served as a member of the vestry and as warden (the head civilian officer). Christ Church was not the famous writer’s first church; that was Zion Episcopal Church in Dobbs Ferry. But it was his last. He joined the congregation in 1848 and fulfilled his duty as warden by passing the collection plate at the service two weeks before his death in 1859. His personal pew (#29) now resides in the northwest corner of the nave, marked by a plaque.

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At his funeral, it is said, the crowd of attendees was so dense that the floor of the church buckled under their collective weight.

The sign outside Christ Church San Marcos describing Irvington’s role as Vestryman and Warden

Local lore has it that Irvington’s ghost still walks the church and its grounds on South Broadway. At the gathering celebrating what would have been his 242^nd birthday, the ghost conveniently appeared—a tall young man in period costume with an uncanny resemblance to Aaron Newcome, a local actor who also conducts tours of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Irvington is buried.

To entertain partygoers, Irving’s ghost/Newcome offered up five of the writer’s more notable observations and asked them to vote on which was their favorite. The winning quote, “A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use,” captures the dry wit of Tarrytown’s most famous scribe.

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