Clement Clarke Moore Park

Clement Clarke Moore Park is a neighborhood park in Chelsea at West 22nd Street and Tenth Avenue, named for the scholar and poet traditionally credited with writing the 1823 poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' (commonly known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'), which played a major role in shaping the modern American Christmas tradition.

Moore was a professor of Oriental and Greek Literature at the General Theological Seminary, which he helped found and to which he donated land from his family's estate. That estate, called Chelsea, gave the entire neighborhood its name, one of the most direct connections between a single family and a Manhattan neighborhood that survives today.

The park features a playground, open lawn area, and seating amid mature trees. Its location along Tenth Avenue places it at the western edge of Chelsea, near the galleries, restaurants, and residential developments that have transformed this part of Manhattan in recent decades.

The General Theological Seminary campus, with its tree-filled grounds visible from nearby streets, preserves elements of the neighborhood's 19th-century character. The contrast between the historic seminary close and the gleaming towers of nearby Hudson Yards captures Chelsea's position between old and new New York.

Clement Clarke Moore Park connects residents to a figure whose contributions to both Christmas tradition and the physical development of Chelsea shaped the neighborhood's identity. It is a park whose literary namesake adds a whimsical dimension to the everyday life of families and residents who use it.