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Reservation FAQs

How do I make a reservation for a school group tour?

Fill out our Field Trip Request Form or email our Ticketing Services Manager, [email protected]. School group reservations are required and must be made at least three weeks in advance of your requested visit. Payment is due two weeks in advance of your visit.

Program slots are limited and sell out quickly, so please book early.

What if I need to change my reservation or discuss payment?

All payment and reservation questions should be directed to our Ticketing Services Manager, Iris Cohen at [email protected].

What are the roles of the chaperones?

We value our chaperones here at HHV. Without them, we cannot hold these programs. Chaperones can help us best when they are active observers of the program, helping with group movements, transitions, and observing the students for behavior and for understanding. If chaperones see that something needs to be clarified for students, they should feel free to ask the guide for further explanation or to repeat some information or a direction. We ask that chaperones with questions themselves hold their questions until after the guide is finished answering student questions in a space.

To ensure that each group has a rewarding educational experience, we require at least a 10:1 ratio of students to chaperones. Your group is entitled to one free adult for every 10 students. Additional adults are $10 per person, per site.

We have students with special needs, food allergies, or mobility concerns. Is there someone I should contact?

Yes. To discuss your upcoming program, please email Julia Butterfield, K-12 Program Coordinator, at [email protected].  In your email, please indicate whether you wish to be contacted by email or by phone. If you wish to be contacted by phone, be sure to give your work, cell, or home phone number and indicate a time when you can be contacted.

Can we eat lunch at the museum?

You are welcome to use the picnic tables, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Food is not allowed in the historic core.

If you plan to eat before your program, please have students return non-disposable lunch items to the bus before starting the tour.  If you plan to eat after the tour, ask students to leave their lunches on the bus until after the tour.

Can we order goody bags?

Goody bags can be ordered in advance of your visit. There are two goody bag options, $5 or $10, including tax.

For questions or to order goody bags please email [email protected] at least one week prior to your visit. Goody bags will be ready for you in our Museum Shop on the day of your visit.

Proceeds from all sales support the educational programs of Historic Hudson Valley.

Program FAQs

What grade levels are your programs suitable for?

School programs are designed for students in grades 3-12 and align  to New York State Social Studies Standards and AP U.S. History  Framework,

What learning standards do your programs follow?

Our programs align to New York State Social Studies Standards and AP U.S. History Framework.

New York State Social Studies Standards
4.3b Colonial New York became home to many different peoples, including European immigrants, and free and enslaved Africans. Colonists developed different lifestyles.
4.5a There were slaves in New York State. People worked to fight against slavery and for change.
4.5c The United States became divided over several issues, including slavery, resulting in the Civil War. New York State supported the Union and played an important role in this war.
5.3d Africans were captured, brought to the Americas, and sold as slaves. Their transport across the Atlantic was known as the Middle Passage.
5.6b Legal, political, and historic documents define the values, beliefs, and principles of constitutional democracy.
5.6c Across time and place, different groups of people in the Western Hemisphere have struggled and fought for equality and civil rights or sovereignty.
7.2e Over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery grew in the colonies. Enslaved Africans utilized a variety of strategies to both survive and resist their conditions.
7.7b Enslaved African Americans resisted slavery in various ways in the 19th century. The abolitionist movement also worked to raise awareness of and generate resistance to the institution of slavery.
9.4c Interregional travelers, traders, missionaries, and nomads carried products and natural resources, and brought with them enslaved people and ideas that led to cultural diffusion.
9.10c The decimation of indigenous populations in the Americas influenced the growth of the Atlantic slave trade. The trade of enslaved peoples resulted in exploitation, death, and the creation of wealth.
11.1b A number of factors influenced colonial economic development, social structures, and labor systems, causing variation by region.

AP U.S. History Framework
KC-1.2.II.C European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced slavery to forcibly extract enslaved laborers for the Americas. The Spanish imported enslaved Africans to labor in plantation agriculture and mining.
KC-2.1.II.D The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy
KC-2.1.III.A An Atlantic economy developed in which goods, as well as enslaved Africans and American Indians, were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the Americas through extensive trade networks. European colonial economies focused on acquiring, producing, and exporting commodities that were valued in Europe and gaining new sources of labor.
KC-2.2.II.A All the British colonies participated to varying degrees in the Atlantic slave trade due to the abundance of land and a growing European demand for colonial goods, as well as a shortage of indentured servants. Small New England farms used relatively few enslaved laborers, all port cities held significant minorities of enslaved people, and the emerging plantation systems of the Chesapeake and the southern Atlantic coast had large numbers of enslaved workers, while the great majority of enslaved Africans were sent to the West Indies.
KC-2.2.II.B As chattel slavery became the dominant labor system in many southern colonies, new laws created a strict racial system that prohibited interracial relationships and defined the descendants of African American mothers as black and enslaved in perpetuity.
KC-2.2.II.C Africans developed both overt and covert means to resist the dehumanizing nature of slavery and maintain their family and gender systems, culture, and religion.
KC-2.2.II Like other European empires in the Americas that participated in the Atlantic slave trade, the English colonies developed a system of slavery that reflected the specific economic, demographic, and geographic characteristics of those colonies.

How do your tours discuss slavery?

This program will discuss slavery in colonial New York and will feature historic sites and objects associated with enslavement, as well as educators in period clothing delivering tours based in extensive scholarship and primary documents. Historic Hudson Valley recognizes that this is sensitive and painful historical content, and it is our policy never to ask visitors, students, teachers or our own staff to role play the part of an enslaved person or an enslaver. Please contact [email protected] if you have questions or concerns.

Visiting FAQs

How should my students dress?

Dress for the outdoors! Programs are held rain, snow, or shine. Students, teachers, and chaperones should dress for the weather and wear appropriate footwear. Programs involve walking outdoors on unpaved and/or uneven surfaces.

How do we get to the site?

GPS address for Philipsburg Manor:
381 N Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, NY

GPS address for Washington Irving’s Sunnyside:
3 W Sunnyside Lane, Irvington, NY

What should we do if we're running late?

If you anticipate a delay or if you must cancel on the day of the trip, please call our Education Hotline at 914.366.6913. This number is for day-of-use only.

What should I do when we arrive?

Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of your program. If you arrive late, your program will be shortened accordingly.

When you arrive, a Philipsburg Manor staff member will greet your group in the parking lot. If you do not see a staff member, please go to the Visitor Center and ring the doorbell on the left side

How do I know if there are delays or closures due to weather?

Chances are if your school is open, so are we.  If you’re unsure, please call our main office (914.631.8200) and listen to the greeting.  Any site closures or delayed openings will be noted.

Traffic Alert for Sleepy Hollow Visitors: Please Allow Extra Travel Time.Read More