I live in the Rivertowns, a group of villages and small cities extending from Yonkers to Croton that many Baruch students refer to as “upstate” or “the country”. It is neither truly upstate nor the country. But several towns have used their ideal location along the Hudson river and the Croton-Harmon line as well as the region’s deep history to turn themselves into a getaway from the city. I would like to compare and contrast two interconnected river towns: Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. While they share some of the same streets, same schools and even at one time the same namesake, what ends up separating the two is how they attract tourists. Tarrytown has revamped their Main Street to suit day visitors looking for the sometimes kitschy small town experience. Sleepy Hollow’s tourism depends on the historical landmarks tied to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, especially during the Halloween season, leaving their downtown to serve the residents. This can be seen most obviously through the signs that each town uses. Because Tarrytown’s stores and restaurants are more geared towards tourists, the signs are highly stylized, colorful and unique, while Sleepy Hollow’s downtown signs are more homogenous and highlight a stronger sense of community, leaving their landmark signs to pull most of the weight in attracting visitors.
For a little bit of background, Sleepy Hollow was originally incorporated as North Tarrytown in 1883 in an effort to align itself with its close neighbor and economic powerhouse Tarrytown. Tarrytown’s economy was fueled by a large group of millionaires who moved there and funneled money into fancy estates and buildings/businesses. North Tarrytown benefited somewhat from this, but it wasn’t until General Motors opened a factory on the waterfront that business began to pick up and the town was able to establish its own economic opportunities. Business boomed in both villages up until GM’s plant activity declined in the 1980’s. With an uncertain future looming overhead, Tarrytown focused on revamping their downtown and rehabilitating their historic estates for tourists. In 1996, North Tarrytown voted to change its name to Sleepy Hollow in reverence to Irving’s old story and the legend’s recent resurgence in popularity has transformed the town into a tourist hot spot.
When walking down Main Street in Tarrytown, the first thing that I notice is that there are a variety of cuisines to choose from when looking for a place to eat, illustrated by the sign diversity. The first sign one sees when walking down from Route 9 is for Bistro 12, a restaurant serving up Italian-American fusion.
The restaurant’s name already creates a sense of anonymity as it is not really in reference to anything. Maybe the “12” signifies that the establishment belongs to a group of restaurants, or maybe it is highlighting their number of dishes. But whatever the meaning, its lack of elaboration creates a mystery generally seen in the signs of higher-end restaurants. It’s use of the bright reddish-pink as a backdrop against white letters makes it easily readable and provoking from a distance. Being so eye-catching is just one of the ways the Bistro lures in tourists who are visiting the town and want to have a fancier dining experience.
Next door is Bibillé, a fast-food Korean joint. Their sign uses more muted colors, but maintains this theme of white letters against a dark backdrop. The typeface of the title and subtitles are a little more rounded and playful. This helps to attract a younger crowd that generally looks for cheap eats when traveling (while I don’t have a direct source, I can attest to this being a college student). The typeface also plays into the fact that it is a Korean restaurant, and seems to mimic some of the shapes seen in the Korean alphabet.
Mint, which serves French/Moroccan style food (not to mention sells the best cheese) utilizes a sign style that seems more like branding. It is a logo that looks like it could be printed on cards or products and along with the words “premium foods”, emphasizes the fact that the restaurant also sells high-end groceries, cured meats, olives and cheeses. The style of food available is not clear based on the sign, and requires customers to go in to find out themselves. This lack of information implies an exclusivity in that only the people that enter can get a true a sense of what is inside.
Each sign’s distinctive look helps them to stand apart amongst each other. However, this diversity of restaurants does not necessarily match the diversity of the population. According to the 2010 census estimates of Tarrytown, a majority of the town’s inhabitants are white, standing at around 76.9%. The second largest ethnicity is Hispanic at 27.4%. There are also small groups of people of Asian descent and African American descent, each at around 5% to 6%. But the culture is not made visible from the signs. The names may be from different languages and yet all of the sub headings and signage are written in English. It recalls the universality of the language which is used by or at least somewhat understandable to most tourists. Any attempt at diversity by the restaurants gets undercut by the fact that relying on English as a main mode of communication in the signs makes everything seem Americanized. Both Mint and Bistro 12 neglect to elaborate in their signs the specific style of food they make, and Bibillé says that their food is Korean “fusion”, which further proves the desire to fit in with American tastes rather than Korean authenticity. It can be inferred that the multitude of cuisines exists more from the desire to pander to tourists with a wider variety of tastes rather than to appeal to the actual populations that live there.
Interspersed among these restaurants are a variety of specialty stores whose signs use more classic typefaces to convey the idea of luxury. Trilogy, seen below is a thrift store that utilizes a stylized serif typeface to add a touch of whimsy and originality to the title, separating them out from other secondhand stores like Goodwill by attracting a more niche, hipster crowd. The inclusion of the words “modern, vintage & artisan” is written in a sans serif to make the vague description of the goods look streamlined. The strong sense of design shows that time and energy was put into marketing which many thrift stores do not have the capital to do. It can be assumed that the shoppers tend to be more affluent tourists in search of clothing that can’t be easily found elsewhere.
Shay Lula applies a similar tactic for word inclusion on the sign by emphasizing the name whilst keeping the specifics of the store’s products to simply “jewelry” and “gifts”. The ambiguous language beckons in customers because whatever is inside is obviously amazing enough to keep the store open without the need for broadcasting to increase sales. Like Trilogy, the sign also employs a serif typeface for the title while using a sans serif for description to create hierarchy.
The town’s proximity to the Hudson River and what was once the Tappan Zee Bridge is also mentioned in the signs of several establishments. The bridge and the river it crosses proves to be a draw for many tourists and so businesses capitalize on the names. Hudson River Eye Care highlights the word “river” in green and extends the letters lines all around the sign in a border, almost like a water way. Hair on the Hudson references the river not only in its title but in the blue color of the sign and the scalloped edge of the fabric that is reminiscent of waves. The Tapp utilizes wordplay, combining the bridge name and beer taps to emphasize their location. Such a focus on physical orientation gives the town a singularity that appeals to outsiders.
I would like to remark however that not every sign in Tarrytown is made to draw in tourists. The signs of two adjacent restaurants, the Tarry Tavern and Eatarry, are different than others in that both are focused on the town name and use a simple font that is not very showy. The signs each employ the image of wheat and use the colors brown and orange which are both associated with the harvest rather. The lack of showiness means that these establishments cater more to the regulars who live in and around Tarrytown rather than the people who might come once or twice in a year.
While this sort of simple signage is rare in Tarrytown, it is seen throughout Sleepy Hollow’s main street, Beekman Avenue as the town itself caters more to the actual population that lives there. This means that the signs are simpler in design and less stylized because they are not striving to attract outsiders. Rather the language used is concise and straight to the point in order to maintain a steady base of regulars.
In the signs for both Restaurante Amazonas and Las Americas Deli and Grocery, the purpose and goods sold are immediately clear due to the signs easy readability. The inclusion of the telephone number on the Amazonas sign further’s the idea that it is more for regulars who are inclined to order takeout rather than people who are visiting for the day. Notice that the signs are not designed so that the establishment can be branded, unlike Tarrytown’s Mint.
According to US Census data, white people and Hispanic people make up about half of the Sleepy Hollow’s population each. In turn, many of the restaurants and shops on the main streets feature a mix of Spanish and English on their signs, further serving their population rather than trying to appeal to outsiders who may not speak Spanish. This can be seen on the signs of Gustito Dominicano Restaurant and Sweet Ambateño Bakery. The Dominican restaurant utilizes the word “gustito”, which means tasty, in its main title but keeps “restaurant” in English to make it accessible for both English and Spanish speakers. In the bakery sign, Ambateño means from the Ecuadorian city Ambato, but in using the words “sweet” and “bakery” rather than “dulce” and “panadería”, the sign conveys the fact that the bakery not only specializes in Spanish baked goods but standard American fare as well.
Sweet Ambateño Bakery, Screenshot from Google Maps
Sleepy Hollow’s downtown has a much larger selection of amenities available to the community that employ this dual-language signage. Take Cortland Salon Unisex (featured below) and their “Salon y peluquería” neon sign. The sign written in English, seen on the right, is painted onto the store window in white. Directly beneath it is the phrase “Peluquería de los Hispanos” which directly translates to “Hispanic Barber Shop”. On the other shop window hangs a neon sign that says both the English and Spanish word for “salon”. While it is clear that the barbershop caters to Hispanics, they still make sure their signs are understandable for the town’s English speakers.
Because Sleepy Hollow’s downtown doesn’t do much for tourists, they rely on their local landmarks and name to pull in visitors. This is first seen in the town entrance sign. The word “historic” as well as the “settled in” sub-title are included to bring attention to how old the area is despite it’s new name change. The use of different fonts and the shape of the board add a gothic element to the sign, and helps to create the image of Sleepy Hollow that tourists have in their mind.
This Gothic theme continues with the sign for the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. It is both historic in name and creation, as the letters are chiseled into stone in a style that looks like one seen on a Halloween Postcard. It was named this in reverence to the legend, long before the town changed its own name. The graveyard abuts the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, where some of The Legend was supposed to take place. The written sign for the church is simple, but the font once again creates a gothic vibe, perhaps because of its history. Twice, it mentions the name Sleepy Hollow. While I understand that it is the town name, I can’t help but feel that the constant name-dropping is done in order to remind visitors that they are, indeed, in Sleepy Hollow, the place out of the Halloween legend.
Several signs in the town also use the symbol of the Headless Horseman. Ichabod’s Landing, a newer development along the river, not only makes reference to Ichabod Crane from the story but includes the image of the Horseman. Both the title and image are drawn in a yellowish-orangish color that is reminiscent of autumn and of Halloween.
Even the street signs in Sleepy Hollow are stylized to remind people of the legend. They are colored orange for Halloween and feature another illustration of the Headless Horseman riding above the name.
In conclusion, both Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow have found unique ways to capitalize on their town’s strong suits, be that great restaurants, interesting shops or places of historical intrigue. Each town gets thousands of tourists every year who want to see what they have to offer, and it is through their signs that we see just how different each towns magnetism is.
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