Moore Homestead Playground
Known as “Broadway Park,” few people know the origins of this Elmhurst city park. Originally home to colonial settler Captain Samuel Moore in the 1600s, his descendant, Clement Clarke Moore, wrote the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” in the early 1800s. The apple orchard and family estate that once stood here was Moore’s inspiration for the house in which “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” These days, there’s a lot more action than St. Nick and his reindeer at this concrete park, popular with locals for its handball and basketball courts, multi-age playground areas, and chess tables that attract scores of older men crowding around to watch intense matches.