Moore Homestead Playground

NYC Parks records that in the mid-1600s the surviving children of Reverend John Moore (1620-1657) were granted 80 acres of land in the area, and that Captain Samuel Moore (1645-1717) built a house here in 1661. Parks says the property "is also known as the birthplace of the famous 'Newtown Pippin' apple which arose from the farm of Gershom Moore, Captain Samuel Moore's brother"; Wikipedia instead places Gershom Moore at what is now the intersection of Broadway, 45th Avenue and Elmhurst Avenue. New York City adopted the Newtown Pippin as its official apple on December 31, 2013. The Board of Transportation acquired the homestead site during construction of the Independent Subway in 1930, the buildings were razed in 1933, the site became Elmhurst Playground in 1954, and the City Council renamed it in 1987. In 1992, capital reconstruction was interrupted when workers unearthed a brick cistern formerly used to store water for the old homestead, built of European-made bricks used as ballast on ships bound for American shores.