It features a bust of Irving and sculptures of two of his better-known characters by Daniel Chester French, set in a small stone plaza at the street corner designed by Charles A. Platt.

A local woman, Jennie Prince Black, pushed for the memorial's creation and construction in 1909, since Sunnyside was then still an Irving family residence closed to the public and his admirers had few places to pay their respects to him.

The memorial went through a difficult construction process, passing through several proposed locations and many financial difficulties before it could finally be dedicated in 1927, a year later than originally planned.

The opening of Sunnyside since then has led the Irving admirers there instead, but after a major restoration in the late 20th century it remains true to its original design.

Sunnyside Creek, a small tributary of the nearby Hudson River, flows through a culvert underneath and lends a sloping, wooded character to the land behind the memorial.

Issues persisted even after it was formally dedicated.During his lifetime, Irving – revered as America's first great writer – regularly received visitors and admirers at Sunnyside.

He consulted with his friend Bashford Dean, curator of arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as to what the Moorish king would have worn.

Costs for the memorial continued to rise as it became more elaborate, and French became involved in fundraising, putting his plaster model of the Irving bust on display in his New York studio to draw attention to the project and entering it in exhibitions.

[1] Back in Irvington, Black and the memorial association, equally concerned about costs, which were now reaching $50,000, again contacted the churches in Tarrytown, where the site was flatter.

French, who preferred the churches over Sunnyside Lane, and Platt both produced modified plans, but legal complications blocked the move in June.

Black organized two fundraising events in the fall, one of them an elaborate pantomime pageant of Irving's works at Sunnyside starring many locals, but was devastated when they raised only $1,000, far short of what was necessary.

French again decided to help out by creating, at his expense, an 18-inch (46 cm) version of his Rip Van Winkle statue that the association could duplicate and sell for $500.

The funding shortfalls resulted in the memorial being scaled back as construction approached: the landscaping and front benches were canceled and the fencing made less elaborate.

On June 24, they reported that, despite faulty foundation work and other issues they said should have been addressed prior to construction, the memorial was ready except for the bronze lettering, which didn't fit in the grooves cut in the rock.

French was still owed $5,000; by the time of the last entry related to the Irving memorial in his account book, two years later, he had been paid $14,500, $500 short of his original fee.