Sleepy Hollow retains quirky spirit at 100

In Sleepy Hollow, it’s Halloween all year round.

Well, not exactly. But this picturesque neighborhood, the oldest in Chino Hills, takes its name from one of America’s oldest tales of the supernatural. And the community’s unofficial greeter is the plastic figure of a human skeleton.

Cheerfully dubbed Hollow Man, he perches on a wooden fence along busy, twisting Carbon Canyon Road, where he’s become a familiar sight to commuters (and on Instagram).

I was taking photos of him

Tuesday from the roadside when Melissa Haug, who had pulled onto quiet Rosemary Lane beside me, said hello through her open car window. She and her husband, Dustin, are the ones who first set out the figure in 2017.

“It started as a Halloween thing, a skeleton along the road,” Haug explained. “But we’re both on the Fire Safety Council and thought we could do more with him. We starting putting a ‘Slow’ sign and orange vest on him.”

Neighbor Linda Briney now sews outfits for Hollow Man. He’ll wear an Uncle Sam outfit for the Fourth of July, bunny ears for Easter, a green topper and vest for St. Patrick’s Day.

In recent weeks, Hollow Man has been wearing a pointy birthday hat and colorful garland. Signs below him announce: “Happy 100th Birthday Sleepy Hollow.”

The community was born in October 1923 — 100 years ago this month — when 80 acres was subdivided into small lots by Cleve and Elizabeth Purington and other investors.

The map was notarized on two dates, Oct. 17 and 24, either of which could be considered the community’s birthdate, ac

PHOTO BY DAVID ALLEN Sleepy Hollow’s goodwill ambassador is Hollow Man, a plastic skeleton posing along Carbon Canyon Road. He’s wearing birthday attire to mark the Chino Hills neighborhood’s 100th anniversary since its founding in 1923. It’s the oldest neighborhood in Chino Hills.