Patriot ' s Park Patriot ' s Park ( originally referred to as Brookside Park ) is located on U . S . Route 9 along the boundary between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County , New York , United States . It is a four - acre ( 1 . 6 - ha ) parcel with a walkway and several monuments . In 1982 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places . Overview . During the Revolutionary War Major John André of the British Army was captured , disguised in civilian clothing , at the site by three Patriot militiamen . They found papers on him that implicated him in espionage with Benedict Arnold , a high - ranking officer of the Continental Army . After a military trial André was executed ; Arnold defected to the British and lived his remaining years after the war in England . A memorial was erected on the site in 1853 , on land donated by some members of the local African American community . It was one of the earliest monuments to honor any event of the Revolutionary War . Later it was expanded and incorporated into Brookside Park , a late 19th - century Beaux - Arts residential development by the firm of Carrère and Hastings . Later it became the campus of two different girls ' boarding schools , one of which was attended by Lauren Bacall . It became a park and took its current name in the middle of the 20th century , and all buildings but the gatehouse were demolished . Grounds . The park is a four - acre ( 1 . 6 ha ) parcel located between North Broadway ( Route 9 ) on its east , North Washington Street to the west and College Avenue on the north . The southwest corner has some houses continuing down to Wildey Street ; Tarrytown ' s public library is to the southeast . Across North Washington are more houses , which continue to the College intersection at the northwest . Church of the Immaculate Conception is across from the park at College and North Broadway . To the east is the large open lawn of John Paulding School , the public elementary school of the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns , which has its headquarters north of the school in the former Edward Harden Mansion , also listed on the National Register . Behind them runs the Old Croton Aqueduct , a National Historic Landmark . The commercial areas of downtown Sleepy Hollow are two blocks to the north along North Broadway . Topographically the park consists of two slight rises , more pronounced toward the west , reflecting the land ' s general descent toward the nearby Hudson River . They are divided by the narrow channel followed by Andre Brook , which also forms the boundary between the two villages , Tarrytown to the south and Sleepy Hollow to the north . The land is mostly open , with tall mature trees providing shade opportunities , more in the north of the park than the south . The park ' s organizing feature is an oval walkway with entrances at the north , east and west , and short paths to a basketball court at the south and North Broadway to the southeast . The main entrance is at the west . It is flanked by two gateposts of rusticated granite blocks . Stone walls in random ashlar with granite copings begin at the posts and follow the sidewalks to create terraces , broken by granite steps to the walkway , on either side of the entrance . They end in granite consoles . In the north terraces is a stone gatehouse , one bay on each side with walls laid in a random ashlar pattern and topped by a cornice line . Atop is a hipped roof shingled in asphalt , with exposed rafter ends . Its entrance is on the west facade ; the only window is on the north . South of the west entrance is the Captors ' Monument , enclosed by a square iron fence . It consists of two pedestal s topped by a bronze statue of John Paulding , one of the local men who apprehended André . The older lower pedestal is a square block of white Sing Sing marble with a recessed panel on the west side . Inside the panel is a bronze commemorative plaque with a bas - relief depicting André ' s capture . It supports the upper pedestal , a narrowing concrete block , and the statue of Paulding atop that . South of the Captors ' Monument is a more modern statue of Christopher Columbus . Opposite the entrance curving stone steps , along with a sloped walkway from the south , lead down from battered stone piers at either end of a retaining wall to a basin where Andre Brook flows out from a culvert that has carried it under North Broadway and the schools to the east . It emerges from an arch with alternating scaled voussoir s and a scaled keystone in the monochrome ashlar retaining wall on the west side of the walkway . Above it is a balcony supported by two consoles . The brook flows over a dam and west down a concrete - lined channel , paralleled by a stone path on the south bank . Midway along it is a small stone foot bridge , with battered stone piers and an arch , with the same voussoirs as the retaining wall arch but a shouldered keystone . From there it flows over another waterfall and under the drive bridge , similar to the foot bridge but heavier , then into another culvert under North Washington Avenue . There are two playgrounds within the park . A smaller , older one is in the northwest corner , and a newer and larger one in the southwest , near the library . Decorative lamps line the drive , and benches are located around the park . History . The park derives its primary importance from the capture of Major André during the war . The monument was erected in the mid - 19th century . After being developed for residential use in the late 19th century , it became home to two girls ' schools and finally , today ' s park , undergoing several renovations in the process . 1780 : Capture of Major André . In 1780 , five years from the start of the Revolutionary War , the settlements that would later become the Tarrytowns were in the middle of Neutral Ground , the – wide no man ' s land between British forces occupying New York City ( at the time , what is today Lower Manhattan ) and the Continental Army north of the Croton River . Gangs of armed bandits roamed the lightly populated area , raiding farms in a search for livestock and other goods they could sell to the warring armies . Those with Loyalist sympathies were called Cow - boys ; their counterparts who sold to the Patriots were known as Skinners . On the morning of September 24 that year , three young men — John Paulding , Isaac Van Wart and David Williams — set themselves up along the road through Tarrytown , approximately east of where the Captors ' Monument is now . They were part of a group of eight Skinners , hoping to ambush a party of Cow - boys . A rider approached them , and they raised their guns to stop him . It was Major John André of the British Army , returning from a clandestine visit to West Point , where he had been negotiating the terms of a surrender with General Benedict Arnold of the Continental Army . Paulding , who had recently escaped from British custody , wore a Hessian coat he had taken in the process , which led André to assume , in the ensuing conversation , that the three were Cow - boys who could thus aid him in continuing on to New York . When informed of his mistake , he produced a pass signed by Arnold . The three searched him and found papers in his boots , not only his correspondence with Arnold but diagrams of the defenses at West Point . Paulding , the only literate member of the trio , read them and realized quickly that André was a spy . Williams asked André what money he could pay them , but Paulding quickly ended any talk of a payoff , swearing that not even 10 , 000 guineas would be enough . After André was turned over to the Continental command at North Castle , he was taken across the Hudson to Tappan where he was held prisoner . After being convicted of espionage at a military trial in the DeWint House ( today a National Historic Landmark ) , he was hanged by order of George Washington , who had attended the trial . Had André successfully conveyed the information Arnold had given him to New York , the British could have managed to secure the Hudson and cut New England off from the other rebellious colonies , resolving the stalemate of the time in their favor and drastically changing the outcome of the war . Arnold , tipped off about André ' s arrest by a member of his staff unaware of his commander ' s involvement , was able to escape to the British with his family . After holding some commands in the British Army , he emigrated to England at war ' s end , where he was buried two decades later . Paulding , Van Wart and Williams were recognized and compensated for their roles in the capture . The Continental Congress awarded them lifetime pensions and the Fidelity Medallion , generally considered the first U . S . military decoration ; the state gave them farms confiscated from Loyalists . Two decades later , three counties in the new state of Ohio were named after them . Later the elementary school near the memorial would take Paulding ' s name as well . 1853 – 1942 : homes and schools . David Williams , the sole survivor of the trio that captured Major John Andre , died in 1831 . After his death , a movement began to build a monument at the capture site . It never gained enough support , but never completely disappeared either . In 1852 the Monument Association to the Captors of Major André was formally established at last , and it was able to bring those plans to fruition . A local freed African American couple , William and Mary Taylor , donated the property they owned at the intersection of the brook and the highway . The cornerstone was laid on Independence Day , July 4 , 1853 . Among those at the ceremony were Alexander Hamilton ' s son James , and Horatio Seymour and Henry J . Raymond , governor and lieutenant governor of New York , respectively . The lower pedestal was raised shortly thereafter , of marble quarried in nearby Sing Sing , today Ossining . It was topped with an obelisk . On the centennial of the capture in 1880 , the monument was expanded and rededicated . A crowd of 70 , 000 attended the ceremony , presided over by Samuel J . Tilden ( one of his last public appearances ) and Chauncey Depew . The obelisk was replaced with the current concrete block and topped with a statue of Paulding by William R . O ' Donovan , donated by a Tarrytown resident . At that time there were three houses across North Broadway , dating to at least 1865 . They were demolished to clear the way for an 1892 plan to incorporate the monument into Brookside Park , a new residential development . Carrère and Hastings designed eight wood and stone Beaux - Arts cottages and a stone gatehouse , meant to blend in with the site , and laid out the park ' s extant landscaping , its symmetry and grandiose treatment of the basin characteristic of their chosen style . By the end of the year all were completed , at a cost of $ 10 , 000 ( $ in modern dollars ) apiece . Developer Eugene Jones intended to lease the units individually rather than sell them . In 1896 he sold them to Amos Clark , who continued to lease out the cottages until renting the property to the recently established Knox School for Girls in 1911 . It named the buildings , which housed its 42 students , after roses . By the end of the decade Knox had outgrown Brookside , and moved to a new campus in Cooperstown . Another girls ' school , Highland Manor , moved in in 1920 . Among the students to attend Highland Manor was Lauren Bacall , later a successful actress . In 1942 , as its predecessor had , the school moved to a larger campus elsewhere . Two local women bought the park , had all but one of the neglected cottages demolished , and then donated the property to the two villages . At that time it was renamed to Patriot ' s Park . 1943 – present : park . After World War II ended , three local garden clubs formed a committee to guide the restoration of the park . Following a plan by a still - unidentified architect , the foundations of the demolished houses were filled in and planted in 1949 . Over the next six years further improvements were made . New paved paths were created , dead trees replaced with younger dogwood s and the brook channel lined with concrete . All the masonry was reset and repointed . The remaining house from Brookside Park was used as a gymnasium and storage area until it was demolished around 1970 . The gatehouse is the only building left from that development . As of 1982 the villages of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown ( as Sleepy Hollow was known until changing its name in the early 1990s ) both allocated a thousand dollars a year to the park ' s maintenance .