North Moore Street between Varick and West Broadway

I thought it would be fun to write about the block with one of the coolest things in lower Manhattan: the firehouse they used in Ghostbusters. Unfortunately, not only was there scaffolding on it, but it was covering pretty much the whole building:

Hey, I finally found a block in Manhattan with construction on it. My long search is over. Seriously though, in the case of a firehouse I just hope everything gets fixed up and they get the best building possible.

The firehouse is Hook and Ladder Company 8, and the sidewalk in front has two Ghostbusters-inspired illustrations. Here’s one:

And the other:

Pretty cool, even under all the scaffolding.

The fire hydrant on the corner also has a nice touch to it:

I remembered there being a plaque on the building that might have been Ghostbusters-related, though I’m not certain about that. Anyway there definitely was a plaque and now there’s just a trace of it:

Not sure why it's not there.

I didn’t remember beforehand what else was on this block but I figured there must be a cafe or shop of some kind that I could also check out. However, the rest of this small street is really only apartment buildings. Here’s a look at the side of the block without the firehouse on it:

And here’s a shot of the intersection of North Moore and West Broadway taken from West Broadway:

The block on West Broadway that it intersects with has some nice local stores, including a few eateries (I’ve never written the word “eateries” before and I’ve certainly never said it out loud), a bar or two and a clothing shop on the corner. Here is part of that street:

But enough about that block and back to ours.

After looking at the firehouse for a few minutes I barely spotted a memorial street sign over the sidewalk scaffolding that says “Lieutenant Vincent G. Halloran Street.”

I wish there was a plaque there saying a bit about Lieutenant Halloran. I see memorial street names throughout Manhattan, which is great, but it would be even better if they all had accompanying plaques saying a little about the person. That way each person could be remembered and appreciated more thoroughly and with more understanding of who they were. But the memorial street signs are certainly a nice gesture in themselves.

Later at home I searched online and learned from the site linked to below that Lieutenant Vincent Gerard Halloran died on duty on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center, where he was leading an effort to evacuate the North Tower. He had five kids and his wife was pregnant with another when he died. Here’s the link:


http://www.legacy.com/sept11/story.aspx?personid=128619


After learning about a heroic man like Lieutenant Halloran, it really puts the Ghostbusters sightseeing and scaffolding and lots of life’s trivialities in perspective. I think it’s still okay to want to see the building from Ghostbusters, but the first association of the building should be with Lieutenant Vincent G. Halloran and all the firefighters from Hook and Ladder Company 8 past, present, and future, who risk their lives for us all.