A Poetic Christmas Connection

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What's in a name? When it's Chelsea - as in the Muttontown mansion that now houses the Nassau County Office of Cultural Development - it's a link to one of the most famous Christmas poems, the one known to generations as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas.''

The poem, titled "A Visit From St. Nicholas,'' was written in 1822 by Clement Clarke Moore, a scholar in Hebrew and the son of an Episcopal bishop. Moore's family had come to America in 1750 from Chelsea, England, and established a farm named Chelsea in the area of Manhattan still known by that name.

Moore had not intended for the poem to be published, but a young relative copied it into her diary and her father sent it to a newspaper in upstate Troy. After it was published in the paper, it became a classic, and was reprinted in book form.

The North Shore mansion, named for the family roots, was built as a summer home in 1924 for Benjamin Moore, the great-great-grandson of Clement Clarke Moore, and his wife, Alexandra. The grounds include paving blocks taken from the original pavement of West 23rd Street in Manhattan's Chelsea.

Benjamin Moore died of a heart ailment in 1938. His wife, who remarried, continued to live in Chelsea until her death in 1983, at age 89. The county took it over a year later. Although the building is decorated modestly each year for the holiday season, there is little to remind visitors of its familial connection to that famous poem written nearly 180 years ago.

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