‘Twas the night before Christmas - Notebook 2023-10 — Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society

From "The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Visit From Saint Nicholas, by Clement Moore." Illustrated from drawings by F.O.C. Darley.

In 1839 a professor of Greek and Oriental Languages bought a house in Ossining, NY about 2 miles from where I'm writing this post in Briarcliff Manor. The professor never lived in Ossining, turning over the title to his son, Benjamin soon after purchasing it. But he did visit the house often.

The house was called Moorehaven and the professor's name was Clement Clarke Moore. Much earlier in 1822 he had written a poem for his children. He refused to publish it in his name (thinking it would hurt his reputation as an academic) until 1838.

The poem was “A visit from St. Nicholas”, but it's better known by its first line: “Twas the night before Christmas.”

Tonight, before the kids are nestled all “snug in their beds”, with “visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads”, tell them this story and maybe read the poem to them (full text of the poem can be found at the end of this post.

“Originally a rural Dutch farmhouse; remodeled in the Gothic Revival style in the 1850s; received Shingle style renovations circa 1880. Pre-Revolutionary Dutch farmhouses in the Hudson Valley tended to contain a number of features in common. These include a front porch running the length of the main façade, a gambrel roof design, and an overall configuration that emphasized practicality and the needs of a tenant farming family above other considerations. Architectural features common on Dutch farmhouses included a single story configuration with a side gabled roof design; bi-level front and rear doors that split in two to allow light and open air to enter the structure while keeping farm animals out known as Dutch doors, chimneys located on each end of the roof’s ridge, and a full-length front porch running along the main façade.

Though Moorehaven has been substantially altered on several occasions over the last 270 years, obvious traces of the original design are still visually evident. The current structure is two stories in height and is oriented along an east-west axis. The main façade, which faces south toward the Hudson River rather than toward Sandy Drive, contains a front porch extending the length of the center section of the structure. This was the original house and was one and one half stories in height as originally constructed. A door knocker on the front door reads in Dutch “Please take the trouble to close the door behind you.” The house was renovated in the mid 1850’s and was expanded and remodeled in the Gothic Revival style, adding the steeply pitched center cross gable flanked by a gable dormer on each side. A third remodeling by architect Stanford White circa 1880 added the two story western wing of the house, consisting of a polygonal tower featuring a second story rear porch with three hooded dormers. The building contains 19 rooms and the original center section now contains the living room, library, and half of the kitchen. In the late 19th century, the west wing of the house was constructed. The house was constructed with brick from Philadelphia and has clapboard siding.

Moorehaven, also known by the name Christmas House, was originally a 17th century tenant farmhouse built by a Dutch family named Auser. In the pre-revolutionary era, the 2.8 acre property on which the house sits was part of Philipsburg Manor, an enormous estate owned by slave trader Frederick Philipse that stretched from Kingsbridge in what is now New York City to the Croton River. The farmhouse, which was the northernmost farmhouse on Philipsburg Manor, sat on a parcel sixty acres in size. In 1839, the house was purchased by Clement Moore, author of the poem “Twas the night before Christmas”. For decades, rumors abounded that the poem was written in the house, but research later showed that the poem was written 15 years earlier in Moore’s previous home. Moore’s presence in the house led to the name “Christmas House”. Moore’s son Benjamin also lived in the house and commissioned renowned architect Stanford White (1853-1906) to conduct an extensive renovation circa 1880.. The next owner of the property, well-known 19th century financier Brayton Ives, owned the site until a subsequent owner purchased and subdivided the parcel into lots to create the residential neighborhood Brayton Park, which includes the homes located on Sandy Drive and Beach Road. Moorehaven has had a number of owners over the last 100 years, most of who have either maintained or conducted modest expansions to the house. Today, Moorehaven remains a private home.” From “Village of Ossining, New York Significant Sites and Structures Guide April 2010, Page 8, which also provides additional information. “

The Moore family resided in Ossining from about 1839 until the early years of this century. They were descendants of Clement Clark Moore, the well-known scholar and writer who lived from 1779 to 1863. Clement Moore, although a visitor to Ossining, was not known to have resided here other than for brief visits.

His principal home was in Manhattan where he wrote his immortal “A Visit from St. Nicholas” for his children’s Christmas celebration in 1882. The Moore family estate in Manhattan was called Chelsea, and takes its name from the estate and Georgian-style house of retired British Major Thomas Clarke, who obtained the property when he bought the farm of Jacob Somerindyck on August 16, 1750. The land was bounded by what would become 21st and 24th Streets, from the Hudson River to Eighth Avenue. Clarke chose the name "Chelsea" after the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, England. Clarke passed the estate on to his daughter, Charity, who, with her husband Bishop Benjamin Moore, added land on the south of the estate, extending it to 19th Street. On July 11, 1804, Biship Moore was summoned to give the last rites to a man who had been fatally wounded in a duel. That man was Alexander Hamilton, who had been fatally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr; Hamilton asked to receive holy communion. Moore made two objections: that to participate in a duel was a mortal sin, and that Hamilton, although he was undoubtedly a sincere Christian in his later years, was not an Episcopalian. Moore withdrew but was persuaded by the urgent pleas of Hamilton's friends to return. On receiving Hamilton's solemn assurance that he repented for his part in the duel, Moore gave him communion.

The house was the birthplace of the Moore’s son, Clement Clarke Moore, who in turn inherited the property. The Moore family were prominent Ossining residents. They were members of Trinity Church and donated the clock and chimes to the church in 1894."

A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas from its first line was first published anonymously under the title Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas in 1823 and was later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837. Some doubts remain, however, over whether or not Clarke was the actual author. For more on this see: The Controversy of Who Wrote a Visit from St. Nicholas

Moore is not buried in Ossinings’s Dale Cemetery. In the 1850s, Moore began summering in Newport, Rhode Island, together with his daughters Terry and Mary, and Mary's family. He died on July 10, 1863, at his summer residence on Catherine Street in Newport, five days before his 84th birthday. His funeral was held in Trinity Church, Newport, where he had owned a pew. His body was returned to New York for burial in the cemetery at St. Luke in the Fields. On November 29, 1899, his body was reinterred in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York.

The Moore Family Plot in Ossining’s Dale Cemetery.. Photograph by Howard Dale, Briarcliff Manor Historical Society

A Visit from Saint Nicholas

"’ Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’ kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blixen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Our thanks to William Joseph Reynolds, longtime Ossining resident, historian, writer and editor whose work on the internet (including “Ossining's Connection to a Christmas Classic” and “'Twas the Night Before Christmas in Sing Sing”) provided the inspiration and much of the information for this post.

This notebook is an expanded version of a Facebook post first published December 24, 2022, on the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Facebook Page.