Where do 23 fiberglass bulldogs go once the season ends? In Irvington, they go to the highest bidders. Some of that money comes back to Main Street in a different form. The Bulldog Gallery auction closes Friday, October 9 at 8 p.m. The proceeds are split between the artists and the Irvington Arts & Culture Committee, and the committee is putting its share toward new projects. One of them is the Rivertowns Pumpkin Trail, which launched in the last days of September.
So for a short stretch of early October, the bulldogs that have lined Main Street since May share the sidewalk with the pumpkins they helped fund. The overlap looks like seasonal decoration. It is also the clearest view yet of how Irvington pays for its public art. Each season's auction helps fund the next one, and this fall that model grew past the village line.
A mascot that turned into a funding model
The Bulldog Gallery Committee began as a volunteer group in the fall of 2022. Its first Bulldog Walking Gallery went up in 2023 as a tribute to the school district's mascot, which The Hudson Independent described at the time as a symbol of strength and courage. That first year was planned around 20 sculptures. Early standouts included "Camo Hero," "Grand Marshall," and Selene Smerling's "Time and Memory."
By 2024 the gallery had grown to 27 bulldogs, on view from June through September. The 2026 lineup is a little smaller. The village's notice counts 23 statues up for auction, while the gallery's own 2026 page lists 24. Either way, the auction drives everything else. The mayor's September 30 message says the committee used auction money to support the spring 2026 Pollinator Butterfly Planters and is now supporting the Pumpkin Trail.
The person behind the newest project also painted one of the bulldogs. Kristina Schmidt, who chairs Irvington Arts & Culture, founded the Rivertowns Pumpkin Trail after the success of the Bulldog Galleries and the Butterfly Gallery and Pollinator Gardens. She is also the artist behind "Applejack," a 2026 bulldog sponsored by Fieldpoint Families and the Irvington Historical Society.
The final week to adopt a bulldog
The 2026 designs cover a lot of ground. The village's notice lists themes including:
- an apple
- a rockstar
- a dragon
- Batman
- baseball players
- constellations
- Phantom of the Opera
- a cowboy
The Phantom bulldog was painted by Etta Williamson and Allie Kaye and sponsored by Theater Friends. Bidding runs through the Bulldog Gallery's 2026 page until 8 p.m. on Friday, October 9. A winning bid takes a statue off Main Street, and part of the money comes back as funding for future projects.
Where Irvington's 13 pumpkins stand
The Irvington page of the Pumpkin Trail lists 13 original pumpkin sculptures, each decorated by a local artist. It offers a printable gallery guide and a Google Maps pumpkin finder. The placements follow Main Street almost exactly, so the route works as a single walk from the river up the hill:
- 1 Bridge Street, across from the train station by MP Taverna
- The train station at Astor Place and Main Street
- 18 Main Street at South Buckhout
- 35 Main Street at North Cottenet
- 48 Main Street at South Dutcher
- 71 Main Street at North Eckar
- 78 Main Street at South Ferris
- Village Hall, 85 Main Street, which has two sculptures
- 107 Main Street
- 110 Main Street, where Main crosses the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail
- 136 Main Street
- 1 North Broadway, at the top of the climb
Many of the pumpkins sit on the same corners the bulldogs have held since May. Sidewalk space that once held a single gallery each summer now hosts a second one in the fall.
There is a natural break about halfway up. Bliss Bakehouse, a small-batch bakery and café that opened at 94 Main Street in May 2026, sits between the Village Hall pair and the pumpkin at 107 Main.
The trail's dates vary depending on where you look. Irvington Arts & Culture labels it "All October." Sleepy Hollow's village calendar lists October 1 through November 1, while the same listing's description mentions a display starting September 20. The safe plan is to walk it any time this month.
The model crosses the village line
The bigger change this fall is how far the idea has traveled. The trail's regional map covers six villages: Ardsley, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Sleepy Hollow, Hastings-on-Hudson, and Tarrytown. On Irvington's page, Schmidt describes the project as Irvington joining forces with arts partners throughout the Rivertowns.
Tarrytown shows how closely the neighbors are following the Bulldog Gallery approach. In July, its village board approved $7,500 for 10 fiberglass pumpkins. Its plan sends 30 percent of auction proceeds to the artists and returns the rest to the village for future public art. That is the same cycle that took Irvington from bulldogs to butterflies to pumpkins: commission, display, auction, reinvest.
Irvington's 13 pumpkins are among the largest counts on the trail. As of early October, the village pages list 10 pumpkins in Dobbs Ferry, 10 in Tarrytown, 8 in Sleepy Hollow, and 1 each in Ardsley and Hastings-on-Hudson. Those numbers may change, since the trail's homepage says pumpkins are still being placed and locations are still being updated.
The rest of October on the same streets
Most of the month's village calendar happens within a short walk of the trail, so a pumpkin walk fits easily around other plans.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | Irvington Farmers Market | Main Street School, 101 Main Street |
| Fri., Oct. 9, 8 p.m. | Bulldog Gallery auction closes | Online |
| Sat., Oct. 17, 6 to 8:30 p.m. | Harvest Hayride, free | Parks and Recreation |
| Fri., Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m. | American Classical Orchestra, "Enlightenment" | Irvington Theater |
| Sun., Oct. 25, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | "Growing Mushrooms, Growing Forests" | O'Hara Nature Center |
| Oct. 25, 3 p.m. | Village Halloween Parade, free | Parks and Recreation with the Irvington Fire Company |
| Fri., Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m. | "Ghost Light" | Irvington Theater |
The farmers market sits right on the trail route. Main Street School at 101 Main is between the Village Hall pumpkins and the one at 107 Main, so a Sunday market run passes several sculptures.
The October 25 mushroom program is part of the Living Forest Speaker Series run by the Irvington Green Team and the O'Hara Nature Center. Connor Youngerman of the Cornell Small Farms Program will cover backyard mushroom cultivation and air-pruning techniques for growing native trees and shrubs. The series is free, and registration is requested.
The American Classical Orchestra's "Enlightenment" program includes Mozart's Clarinet Quintet and Haydn's "The Joke." "Ghost Light" is a Halloween-eve evening of music, poetry, theater, film, opera, and dance. The theater's page still listed ticket sales as coming soon, so check before you plan around it.
Check the Halloween parade date before you go. The village notice lists it as "Saturday, October 25" at 3 p.m., but October 25, 2026 falls on a Sunday. Confirm the day with Parks and Recreation. It is also a separate event from the Historic Irvington Halloween Festival, whose parade page points to Saturday, October 31, during the street fair.
The newest stage in the village sits away from the trail. A covered outdoor stage with built-in overhead lighting opened on July 11 at the north end of Matthiessen Park. It cost $1.6 million, and New York State contributed $500,000 with help from State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. The Hudson Independent reported that Jazz Forum concerts would be held there over the summer. Bridge Street leads down toward the riverfront from the first pumpkin, so the trail and the stage are a short detour apart.
At Totally Westchester, we love following stories like this one, where a few volunteers, a school mascot, and an auction turn into public art across six villages. If you walk the trail this month and find a favorite pumpkin or a corner of Main Street you'd like to know more about, send it our way. We're always happy to talk about what's going on in Irvington.