What was here before?
In the mid-1600s Captain Samuel Moore (1645-1717) was granted eighty acres of land in the area to recognize the efforts of his father, Reverend John Moore (1620-1657), in arranging the purchase of Newtown from the Mespeatches tribe. Captain Moore built a house here in 1661, and the property was handed down to generations of his descendants. During the Revolutionary War, the British General William Howe (1729-1814) made his Long Island headquarters at the homestead.
How did this site become a playground?