Joseph F. Moore Park as seen from above in the autumn of 2014.

Joseph F. Moore Park, which celebrated it's 80th anniversary in August 2019, is a Pittsburgh city recreation facility located at 1801 Pioneer Avenue in Brookline. Established in 1939 and officially opened to the public in 1940, it's many fine attractions include an olympic sized swimming pool, three lighted tennis courts, and a children's playground with spray fountain and splash pond.

At the time of the dedication, the park also included an outdoor basketball court, whiffle ball court, a regulation-sized lighted baseball field and a smaller ballfield and a multi-purpose bath house/meeting hall. Most of the original features are still in operation after eight decades.

♦ Moore Park Photo Gallery ♦

Last Updated: March 23, 2023

  
Connie Andres and her mother (1940s) and a 1970 Swimming Pool Operators Guide with Moore Pool on the front cover.

Today, Moore Park is one of several municipal recreation areas nestled in
the rolling hills around Pittsburgh, the oldest of the two city parks here in Brookline.

  
The playground at Moore Park has several attractions to keep Brookline children active and entertained.

  
The swimming pool and baseball field are two of the main highlights at Moore Park.

The Community Gathering Place

For many years now, Moore Park has been one of the community's landmark gathering places. In the summertime, the pool is full of swimmers and the playground buzzing with children and their parents. The ballfields were used by local baseball, football and softball leagues.

  
Linda Dimitroff cools off in the water fountain in 1958 (left) and Brookline Youth Soccer practice in the Fall of 1999.

  
Carol Gogarty with her mom (left) and older sister on the slide in the Summer of 1954. The children's playground,
with it's many attractions, has always been a nice place for parents to relax while the kids run about having fun.

  
The swimming pool at Moore Park has been the summer highlight every year since it opened on August 9, 1940. Shown
here in 1969, several generations of Brookliners spent their hot summer days at the olympic-sized pool.

Today, the fields are still used by the Brookline Little League, the Brookline Youth Soccer Association and several men's softball teams. Many older Brookliners remember the community festival and firework displays, held each Independence Day, on the lower field, from 1940 through the mid-1960s.

Changes Over The Years

Moore Park has seen many upgrades over the years. The pool, which used to have three diving boards (one high and two low) and descended to sixteen feet at its deepest, has been modified. It now sports a water slide instead of the diving boards, and it no longer is as deep as in the past, going to just six feet in the deep end.

In the summer of 1993, in partnership with Pepsi-Cola and Giant Eagle, Moore Park received a $200,000 upgrade, including new child-safe playground equipment, additional parking on the lower level, and other improvements. The dedication ceremonies were held on September 10, 1993. In addition to the other changes, the building was also no longer used as an entrance to the pool with individual baskets for personal items stored on the lower level. Swimmers now entered through a gated entrance to the side of the bath house.

  
Moore Park in the early-1970s. Women's softball practice (left) and just hanging around near the playground.

In 1997, Councilman Michael Diven had the meeting hall converted into a free computer lab, with air conditioning installed. The tech lab was removed after a few years and the room modified for use as a community space. The former bath house is now a popular place for birthdays and other family events, as well a cafeteria for the Citiparks summer food program. Two years later, a pavilion was installed on the walkway beside the swimming pool.

The three tennis courts were rebuilt and the playground area was resurfaced in 2012, along with the installation of new lighting on the courts and lower baseball field. With the help of Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, the railings were painted and cement work was done on the crumbling sidewalks in 2015.

The refurbished tennis courts at Moore Park, shown here in August 2014.

  
The refurbished basketball courts and the new pickleball courts at Moore Park in the Fall of 2018.

In 2018, with help from Councilman Anthony Coghill, the basketball courts were resurfaced and new lighting installed. The wiffle ball area was converted into pickleball courts while much of the rusted fencing seperating the playground from the small ballfield below was removed. Besides these changes, the general park appearance has remained pretty much the same since the day it was dedicated eight decades ago.

During the 2020 pandemic, while the pool sat idle for a summer, some serious structural and mechanical problems were discovered. The aging aging filtration and drainage system had broken and damaged the foundation. These issues were found to be the source of a growing pool of water on the lower ballfield.

Repair and reconstruction of the swimming pool under progress on April 27, 2021.

It took two years to repair or replace sections of the pool from the cement foundation up, install all new gutters, piping and mechanical equipment. The entire pool was refaced and relined.

In a most comforting way, sod will replace some of the concrete pad, a delightful addition.

In what might be the most fantastic of all pool upgrades, much of the "infamous" concrete deck that surrounded the pool, the bane of sunbathers for eight decades, was replaced with a fine bed of sodded grass, along with a few picnic tables.

Moore Park swimming pool on the day of the grand re-opening - Saturday, June 25, 2022.

The $900,000 project was completed in time for the 2022 summer swimming season. The Grand Re-Opening was held on Saturday, June 25, in conjunction with a day-long festival arranged by the City of Pittsburgh and Guarino Group Productions. It was a grand day as Brookliners, young and old alike, came together to celebrate Moore Park's new, and improved, swimming pool.

Professor Moore's Dream - A Safe Place For Kids To Play

Moore Park was built as part of a national and city-wide effort to create public recreation facilities for urban neighborhoods with funding and cooperation of the federal Works Progress Administration. Moore Park has its roots in efforts begun by the principal of the West Liberty School District, Joseph F. Moore to provide safe playground space for children in the Brookline neighborhood. Professor Moore was an ardent advocate that playgrounds were the best answer to the problem of juvenile delinquency.

Since 1911, when Moore first began efforts to spur the city to purchase space near Brookline School for playground use, his vision began to take shape. It took slightly over a decade for the city to act, so in the meantime, a small playground was built on vacant leased lots on land bordering Rossmore, Pioneer, Gallion and Wedgemere Avenues, next to a public baseball field and the Brookline School garden.

The boys and girls have always enjoyed the merry-go-round, shown here in August 1978 along with the old monkey bars.

That playground was lost in 1920, when the Willison Place Plan of homes was built on those lots. It was then that the city finally purchased the land bordering Brookline School. That first official playground opened in 1923, but lasted only six years until the land was needed for an expansion of the school building. In 1930, the Joint Civic Committee of Brookline, of which Professor Moore was a member, began working on several community improvements, including a permanent playground and park.

Construction of a Permanent Park

The process of establishing a park along Pioneer Avenue at the present location began in May 1918, when the city passed an ordinance to lease twenty-two acres of land from Elizabeth Paul for the future creation of a large playground, with the right to sublet a house and four acres of land. Those four acres were used as a golf driving range for several years, but no further action was taken towards the construction of a park.

The decade of the 1930s saw many civic improvements in the community infrastructure and the addition of a Carnegie Library. In 1931, ten of the acres leased in 1918, including the driving range, were earmarked for use as a park in the name of the Brookline Boosters Association. A baseball field was immediately erected on the grounds near Pioneer Avenue. Planning then began on the installation of a permanent playground.

The baseball field along Pioneer Avenue in April 1933. A playground would soon be constructed next to the field.

Thomas Hester Park

On August 5, 1931, the Pittsburgh Press published a short clip stating that Councilman Alderdice and William J. Soost, a Council candidate, addressed members of the Brookline Boosters Association at the German Beneficial Hall on the boulevard. At the meeting, Councilman Alderdice announced that he would sponsor a resolution to name the new playground and park after Thomas Hester, the president of the Brookline Boosters Association.

Miss Lillian Harley, of 374 LaMarido Street, signing a petition being circulated
by Ruth Easton, Marie Nardie and Johanna Helferty - April 1933.

Another person who was influential in the creation of the park was former baseball coach and wealthy landowner Samuel Easton. Easton and his wife circulated petitions throughout the community gathering signatures to be presented before City Council. The Easton's got the local schools involved and their efforts undoubtedly helped in the overall effort.

Joseph F. Moore Playground

It took two years before the playground was constructed. Finally, on September 16, 1933, the community of Brookline got what it had been patiently awaiting for more than two decades when the new children's playground was dedicated. However, rather than naming it after Thomas Hester, the new park was named after the man who had been dreaming and fighting for it all those many years, Joseph F. Moore.

Joseph Moore (right) and his wife Ida at the dedication of Moore Playground on September 16, 1933.
Standing to the left is Peter S. Space, president of the Brookline Savings and Trust Company.

Work on the larger park complex began slowly and proceeded in small steps over the next few years. Preliminary work was done in July of 1934 to clear and grade the land. The utility infrastructure, electric and water lines was installed in 1936.

Tennis courts were constructed the following year, although fencing and nets were not yet installed. By December of 1937, a total of $146,000 had been spent on park construction, but the results were unsatisfactory mainly due to the piecemeal nature in the allocation of funding.

  
Preliminary clearing of the land designated for construction of Moore Park in July 1934.

What's in a Name?

In the meantime there was another try at a name grab for the new park. By 1935 almost everyone was satisfied with calling the new park, like the playground, after Professor Joseph Moore. But there were still others who sought desperately to attach their name to the emerging facility.

That spring petitions were passed around the community with the purpose of naming the new park after Samuel Easton, the man who helped rally support for the park effort a couple years earlier. Easton's petition, which contained several suspicious names, drew the ire of many local residents. When the petitions came before City Council on May 9, 1935, they were immediately dismissed as fraudulent.

Works Progress Administration

Now that the naming rights were established, work on the park proceeded until, in 1938, the federal Works Progress Administration became involved and brought along with it a large influx of grant money and resources, enabling the project to proceed at a much more rapid, consistent and logical pace. From then on, construction of the entire ten-acre park facility took just two years to complete.

Moore Park under construction in October 1939. in the foreground is the pool area and bath house steel frame.

<Photos of Moore Park Under Construction * 1939-1940>

Finally, on August 9, 1940, the dreams of Professor Moore became reality when Mayor Cornelius Scully came to Brookline to dedicate the completed park complex. Rather than being christened "Thomas Hester Park," as envisioned a decade earlier by the Boosters Association, or "Samuel Easton Park," the new Brookline park was aptly named "Joseph F. Moore Park," in honor of the man who worked so hard to see that there was a safe place for the kids to play.

Moore Park An Instant Success

Moore Park was an instant success. The pool attracted 19,434 visitors during it's first week, with a peak day of 5,000 swimmers! In 1942, Moore Pool recorded 209,448 visitors, the highest total of all twenty-three city pools, which all together drew 1.25 million patrons.

Since then, attendance at the pool and playground continued to increase, peaking in the mid-1950s, when the crowded conditions eased slightly with the growing popularity of the Brookline Community Center Park, built two miles away in East Brookline. The pool, however, continued to draw huge crowds until the early 1980s, when the Community Center pool opened.

  
Charlie Marratto takes a cut on the wiffle ball court in 1969 (left) and the regulation sized baseball field on the lower
level, shown in 1952, hosted Brookline Little League games and the Independence Day fireworks in years gone by.
Many other sporting and civic events have been held here over the years. The field is still heavily used today.

A final annecdote on the creation of Moore Park. In December 1940, 58 1/2 acres of land adjoining Moore Park was acquired by the city from the Hampton Hill Improvement Company, which acquired the remaining 108 1/2 acres of the vast Elizabeth Paul estate. This agreement was in lieu of back taxes and with the provision that the acquired acres be for Parks and Recreation purposes and the remaining 50 acres be developed into an apartment complex (Southcrest Court) and the homes on LaRose Street, Linda, Southcrest and Northcrest Drives.

The 58 1/2 acres acquired for the park, which consist mostly of wooded land and ravines stretching west towards Timberland Avenue, have remained undeveloped every since. A proposition was forwarded in 2001 to use fill from Port Authority construction to enlarge the park beyond the lower baseball field and install another multi-purpose field, but that never went beyond the planning stages. That wooded area is now designated as a greenway.

The Brookline Recreation Center hosted a Flag Football League at Moore Park during the fall of 2005 and 2006.

Photos of Moore Park Over the Years

The Paul Farm * 1910
Recollections of Joseph F. Moore
Bob O Link Golf Driving Range * 1930
Thomas Hester Park * 1931
Moore Baseball Field * 1933
Samuel Easton Park * 1935
Moore Park Construction * 1939-1940
Brookline Merchants * 1940
St. Justin High School Football * 1942
Moore Park Pool * 1946
The Zentgraf Family Swimmers * 1945-1957
Pittsburgh '100' Champions * 1949-1951, 1957-59, 1962
Resurrection Football - 1951
Resurrection Football - 1952
Moore Park Swim Meet * 1953
Resurrection Football - 1953
Resurrection Football - 1954
Moore Park Fountain * 1958
Moore Park - July 4, 1960
Brookline Royals * 1960
Pittsburgh Newells * 1961
South Hills Catholic Baseball * 1963

Brookline Junior Royals * 1964
South Hills Catholic Baseball * 1965
Brookline Royals * 1967-1971
Maury Wills Baseball Camp * July 17, 1968
Pushball Championship * July 26, 1968
Connie Hawkins Basketball Camp * Summer 1969
Punt, Pass and Kick * Fall 1969
Pick-Up Football Game * Fall 1969
Diocesan Men's Softball * 1971
St. Pius X Football - 1974
St. Pius X Football - 1978
St. Pius X Football - 1980
St. Pius X Football - 1981
St. Pius X Football - 1983
Moore Park Aerials * 1985
New Pavilion * Fall 1999
Moore Park in the Fall * 2004
Brookline Flag Football * 2005-2006
Moore Pool * Summer 2008
Citiparks Field Day Champions * 2019
80th Anniversary Celebration * August 24, 2019
Swimming Pool Grand Re-Opening * June 25, 2022

♦ 6:03 Minute Video of 1970s-era Football Game at Moore Field ♦
(St. Catherines vs Our Lady of Grace)

Football practice on the big field at Moore Park in the fall of 1961.

 
Generations of life guards kept swimmers safe and the pump swings were a playground favorite. Both photos - 1969.

Kids play in the wading pool, with the spray fountains, in the early-1950s.

 
The South Hills High School girl's softball team (left) and kids having fun on the playground, a rite of passage.

The Citiparks Field Day Games awards presentation - August 14, 2019.

Moore Park Memories

Brookliners past and present have many memories of Moore Park. Many speak of the Independence Day Festivals and the fireworks that were held on the lower field, with the fading embers descending upon a packed crowd lining the steps. During World War II, a USO benefit football game drew a remarkable crowd of 10,000 spectators.

Many will remember a kind lady named Miss DeCarlo, who lived at 1800 Pioneer Avenue, directly across from the park. She had an Italian Ice stand in the 1970s that became a popular stop for children swimming or playing at the park on a hot, summer day. In later years, she parked a truck in the lot from which she sold her delicious ice balls along with a few other treats.

For others, it was playing in the playground and frollicking in the wading pool as young children. As for myself, it was swimming on summer days as a young teen and pitching a nine-inning game on the big field for Brookline's 1976 Senior League All-Stars. It seems as if everyone who has lived in the community has some fond remembrance of Moore Park.

One thing, however, that only the old-timers would recall, is when Art Rooney and his new professional football team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, held their training camp at Moore Park. Although the park itself was not officially christened until 1939, the city of Pittsburgh owned the land. From 1933 to 1936, the city allowed the team to hold their summer camps on the leveled expanse that was once part of the Bob-O-Link golf driving range.

In 1937 the team relocated to a new facility at St. Francis College in Loretto, PA. After a few more moves the Steelers found a permanent summer home at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe. It's just another of the fun facts that make up eight decades of Moore Park history. In 1940, the team changed their name to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Former Park Director Chuck Senft - Moore Park Boxing Club

Until 1971, Moore Park had its own Recreation Director, and beginning in 1957 the director was none other than legendary boxing coach Chuck Senft. His Moore Park Boxing Club became a perennial leader in the Golden and Silver Glove competitions.

When Chuck moved to the new Brookline Recreation Center in May 1971, the club moved along with him. The boxers may have been the same, but the club name was changed to the Brookline Boxing Club, known locally as "Charlie's Angels.".

The club continued the Moore Park Boxing tradition as one of the finest boxing programs in the Commonwealth. Chuck Senft's career as Brookline Community Recreation Director spanned a total of forty-seven years, until his retirement in 2003.

This Press photo from June 15, 1943 shows guard Eleanor McClain at Moore Pool whistling caution to a swimmer.
This was the first year that female guards were assigned to work at city pools.

Moore Park swimming pool in the summer of 1946, complete with high and low diving boards. There are very few
trees growing along the fence, and note the diver in a tuck position off the high board.

A large crowd at Moore Park swimming pool in the summer of 1949, with Mary Agnes Walsh front and center.

If you have any old photos of Moore Park that you would like to share with us,
please notify us via our guestbook, located on the Brookline History homepage,
or send us a message on the Brookline Connection facebook page.

* Last Modified: June 29, 2022 *

The Bleacher Creatures

  
They call themselves the Moore Park Bleacher Creatures, shown here in 2018. Their often infamous and historically
dubious exploits date back to the 1960s. These distinguished park alumni, along with Tony Guarino,
have started their own facebook group. Join them at Moore Park University (MPU).