[2] During the American Revolutionary War Major John André of the British Army was captured, disguised in civilian clothing, at the site by three Patriot militiamen.

After a military trial André was executed; Arnold defected to the British and lived his remaining years after the war in England.

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.

[1] 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.

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.

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 30-mile (48 km)–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.

[1] 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 200 yards (180 m) east of where the Captors' Monument is now.

[1] 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.

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.

[1] 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 in The '76 House tavern.

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.

[1] 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.

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.

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 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.

[1] 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.

[1] After World War II ended, three local garden clubs formed a committee to guide the restoration of the park.

New paved paths were created, dead trees replaced with younger dogwoods and the brook channel lined with concrete.