If there is one person in our history that more than anyone else shaped our memories and created our legends, its Washington Irving. America's first successful fiction author, Irving through his writing created the myths and legends that today form the base of our literary history. "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are universally known to children as they grow up in our culture helping to forge the commonality we all enjoy. And in his Knickerbocker history Irving chronicled the birth of our nation, a fictitious chronicle indeed but a chronicle whose artificial facts and details to this day help shape our beliefs and our ideas of our country.

Irving arose from the late 18th and early 19th century Romantic Movements whose ideals and philosophies were forged in the Hudson Valley. Irving transformed our literary landscape and in the process created an intimate personal landscape at his home in Tarrytown, Sunnyside. Located on the banks of the Hudson River at the Tappan Zee, Sunnyside is a personal expression of this romantic vision. Incorporating the most picturesque elements of Dutch architecture with the carefully crafted landscape, Irving created what he called his "little nookery," his escape from urban New York. In his lifetime this very intimate home became one of the icons of American domestic architecture, images of it being reproduced in the mass media of the time.

Your visit to Sunnyside isn't so much going to be a "wow" experience as it's going to be a "knowing smile" sort of experience. With the possible exception of the view, there is nothing about Sunnyside that overpowers. Instead, it's familiar, it's cozy and above all it's intimately beautiful. The home is on a human scale, small and intimate with porches and doorways where you knew they would be, furniture that you can sink into and gardens that are like the gardens you want at home. It's all a pleasure, as you walk the grounds and tour the home you'll find yourself smiling, happy to be there experiencing this particular man's vision of domestic life.

As an author, Irving created our legends. As a person, Irving created the most influential "cottage" and domestic architecture in our history. He infused our cultural lives on many levels and his writings and home continue to infuse us with his romantic visions.