Ossining Heritage Center - Joseph G. Caputo Community Center
Phone: (914) 941-3189
A well-displayed audio-visual exhibit on the Old Croton Aqueduct. Another on Sing Sing Prison gives a sense of what it is like to "be sent up the river." Free. Open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Monday - Saturday. 95 Broadway.

Ossining Historical Society Museum
Address: 196 Croton Avenue, Ossining, NY
Phone: (914) 941-0001
The Ossining Historical Society Museum is located in the Richard Austin House, listed on the National Register since 1988. The building serves as a museum of 19th and 20th-century decorative arts, costumes, and Native American artifacts, and features exhibits on two floors. The oil painting “Hudson River North to Croton Point” by Robert Havell, engraver for James Audubon, alone is worth the trip. The Historical Society sponsors guided historical tours and lectures, and curates an archive of materials relating to the history of Ossining and the surrounding Hudson Valley area. Entrance by appointment.

The Jug Tavern (Davids-Garrison House)
Address: 74 Revolutionary Road at Rockledge Avenue, Ossining, NY
The Jug Tavern (Davids-Garrison House) stands at the entry to the hamlet of Sparta, the earliest settlement in Ossining. The Jug Tavern has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976 and is the oldest structure in the Sparta Historical and Architectural Design District. It serves as the headquarters of The Jug Tavern of Sparta, Inc., which was formed in 1986 to preserve the building, educate the public on the historic area, and provide programs such as lectures and guided walking tours.

Sparta Cemetery
Address: Revolutionary Road and Route 9
An easy walk from Jug Tavern, Sparta Cemetery is ideal for browsing with its quaint headstones and opportunities for fantasizing about legends. With only a little familiarity with Ossining history one can recognize the ghosts of newspaper publishers, former slaves, Union soldiers and the legendary "Leatherman."

Maryknoll Center
Address: Somerstown Road
Phone: (914) 941-7590
World headquarters for the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America since the 1920s. Almost a community in itself, with its own zip code, Maryknoll is considered the largest structure with an oriental-motif in the country. One of the building's distinctive towers, with its Chinese pagoda-style roof, has become a familiar image to millions of people throughout the world. Over the years, thousands of the Missionary Society's supporters have visited the Ossining center to see an exhibition of missionaries' memorabilia.

Ossining Correctional Facility
In 1825 construction of a prison was initiated on the East bank of the Hudson River in the village of Ossining. The location was considered ideal because local stone, or "Sing Sing marble," could be quarried and used in the building. Also, the site was close to water transportation and accessible to New York City. Almost two hundred years later, Sing Sing continues to operate as an active maximum security prison. Plans are underway to open a Sing Sing Prison Museum in the 1936 Power House, and the 1825 cell block built by inmate labor. More information about the museum project and the history of Sing Sing is available at www.singsingprisonmuseum.org.

Teatown Lake Reservation
Address: 1600 Spring Valley Road
Phone: (914) 762-2912
Named when a group of women demanded a share of a grocer's stashed tea during Revolutionary War days, Teatown Reservation is now a large nature preserve, with its own educational center. A carefully nurtured Wildflower Island is open regularly for guided tours through spring, summer and fall. Naturalists give presentations on maple-sugaring, birds of prey, reptiles, bees, honey-making and more. Many hiking trails through hilly terrain, hardwood forests, wetlands and around the lake are open daily from dawn to dusk. Indoor exhibits provide fascinating glimpses of nature collections and an excellent small store is overloaded with great souvenirs, including tea. Many events, including a pancake breakfast to sample the maple syrup, fairs, and family days are scheduled.

Old Croton Trailway State Historic Park
Phone: (914) 693-0529
Ossining is the only place where visitors may actually enter the Aqueduct, through the Weir Chamber, used to spill off waste water during floods. Tours are arranged occasionally. There is access to the Aqueduct off Main Street, at Nelson and Gerlach Parks, and a small parking area just southwest of Dominican Sisters of Hope on North Highland Avenue. When the Aqueduct crosses Beach Road, hikers may detour to the west into the Crawbuckie Nature Preserve, a 12-acre loop down to the railroad tracks. The Aqueduct is owned and managed by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and offers a scenic walk from northern Westchester County to New York City. The Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct have published an award-winning map detailing the route of the trail and attractions along the way. It is available for $5.75 in Ossining from the Ossining Heritage Center, or by calling (914) 693-4117.

Briarcliff-Peekskill Trailway
Phone: (914) 593-7275
This 12-mile hiking trail runs from Maryknoll in Ossining to the Blue Mountain Reservation in Peekskill. There are several recreational areas along the way, and recent improvements have made it a popular destination.

Louis Engel Waterfront Park
Phone: (914) 941-3189
The 3.5 acre park, just south of the Ossining train station, offers beautiful views of the river, Croton Point and some glimpses of Sing Sing prison. A plaque recalls Alexis de Tocqueville's visit in the 1800s. A number of festivals and concerts are held in the park and nearby during the warmer months.

"Crossining"
The pedestrian bridge which parallels the automobile bridge over Route 9 between Ossining and Croton was whimsically named "Crossining" by Ossining's Supervisor during the opening celebration in 1999. It provides wonderful views of the brackish Croton River as it flows through marshlands to the Hudson, with a few interpretive signs posted along the way.