Moore Homestead Park is at Broadway and 83rd Street in the heart of Elmhurst. The 2-acre, asphalt-blacktop park is the stomping grounds of both teenagers on the basketball and handball courts, and older men hunched over games of chess and "xiangqi" or Chinese chess.
The park was previously known as the Elmhurst Playground. It's current name honors the Moore family homestead that once stood on the spot. Reverend John Moore arranged the purchase of Newtown (now Elmhurst) from Native Americans in the mid-1600s. His family home built in 1661 stood on the land until 1933.
The most famous Moore to live in the house was Clement Clarke Moore, the author of the Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," better known as "Twas the Night before Christmas." Although Moore grew up in the Elmhurst house, he did not live there when he penned the famous poem in 1822.