INTERVIEW: Historic Hudson is ready to celebrate October

Historic Hudson Valley, an organization dedicated to the history and culture of New York’s Hudson Valley, is one of the most successful programmers of Halloween-themed events. From their breathtaking art installation of carved pumpkins called The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze to their haunted house attraction called Horseman’s Hollow, the offerings are diverse, appropriately scary and make for a fun evening in the fall.

The Blaze welcomes tens of thousands of visitors to the grounds of Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Crowds walk around a riverside landscape decorated with more than 7,000 pumpkins, all intricately carved by artists.

To handle the many cars and many visitors, Historic Hudson Valley has to schedule tickets with timed entries. They have it down to a science.

“The site is never too crowded at one particular time,” said Rob Schweitzer, vice president of communications and commerce for Historic Hudson Valley. “It just kind of creates this atmosphere where you’re in a really good mood, and you’re ready to enjoy the experience. So that’s why we put so much effort into the operational details as well as the creative details.”

Horseman’s Hollow is another attraction that Halloween fans can enjoy. This haunted house attraction takes place a few miles south of the Blaze on the grounds of Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, New York. The town and its famous bridge, cemetery and Old Dutch Church should be familiar to fans of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the most famous Halloween story of all time.

Horseman’s Hollow reinterprets and expands on the famous Horseman character in Irving’s story for a walk-through attraction that can be devilishly frightening. Expect to scream, or at least hear others screaming. The Horseman himself may also make an appearance.

“It’s definitely a different experience,” Schweitzer said. “It’s actors, which is different from Blaze, which is more of an art installation, let’s say. It’s a different kind of experience. It draws a bit of a younger crowd. It draws haunted house enthusiasts and Halloween enthusiasts. … It’s kind of like they’re doing a play that starts at 6:30 every night and goes until 10:30. You have to have stamina as an actor to be able to do that, and you have to kind of keep in character and just kind of keep it up during that kind of a run.”

Both of these outside events can be dampened by bad weather, much like they were a few years ago during Superstorm Sandy. Schweitzer said the senior management at Historic Hudson Valley are constantly checking weather apps on their smartphones.

“It’s definitely an issue when you don’t have a roof over your head or a dome you can close in the case of bad weather,” he said. “I’m knocking on wood as I say this. Since 2012, when we had Sandy come through that caused a lot of issues, the weather has been pretty cooperative for us. We are open rain or shine, but we do close if there’s dangerous weather — lightning, heavy winds, things like that. With something like the Blaze, which this year is going to run for 45 nights, it’s hard to expect that we’re not going to lose a night or two to weather, so we kind of have that [built] into our plans.”

For an inside attraction, check out Historic Hudson Valley’s production of Irving’s Legend, a dramatic retelling of Irving’s original story by master storyteller Jonathan Kruk. The organization has partnered with the actor for years, and together they built this performance, which takes place in the Old Dutch Church, across the street from Philipsburg Manor and on the grounds of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The church actually appears in Irving’s tale.

This connection to Irving’s work is to be expected. After all, Historic Hudson Valley owns and operates Sunnyside Manor, Irving’s old homestead.

“We have been celebrating his story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and celebrating the Halloween season for many years,” Schweitzer said. “Jonathan was a fixture at an event that we had; it used to be called Legend Celebration, and again this predates Horseman’s Hollow and Blaze. And it was an opportunity for him to do his storytelling, and it wasn’t as formal as it is with the event that we do at the church now. But people really loved it. You could kind of wander in and out while we had other things going on as part of this Legend Celebration event that we did.”

They realized that Kruk was gathering a loyal fan base and attracting attention.

“We thought about how can we most effectively showcase Jonathan and the setting of the Old Dutch Church, which dates to 1685,” Schweitzer said. “Could you do any better than this? I don’t think so.”

On weekends, Historic Hudson Valley also presents Sunnyside: Home of the Legend at Sunnyside Manor. The unique event, steeped in history, includes a tour of Irving’s estate.

No matter what one chooses in Sleepy Hollow Country, it’s sure to be a scary good time.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Historic Hudson Valley presents The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, Horseman’s Hollow, Irving’s Legend starring Jonathan Kruk and Sunnyside: Home of the Legend over the next few weeks. Many dates sell out in advance. Click here for more information and tickets.

Click here for Hollywood Soapbox’s review of Horseman’s Hollow from 2015. Click here for Hollywood Soapbox’s interview with Jonathan Kruk from 2015. Click here for Hollywood Soapbox’s review of The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze from 2015.

Corrected version.