Have Geek Will Travel

Hey, gang- got another Ghostbusters/NYC trip blog for you. Last week we checked out the NY Public Library.

This time Nicki and I visited the movie headquarters of the Ghostbusters which is an actual working New York City firehouse– Hook & Ladder Company #8.

It was built in 1903 and is located at 14 North Moore Street at its intersection with Varick Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan.

The building, which originally had two vehicle doors, was halved in size in 1913 after Varick Street was widened.

That’s the street the Ecto-1 turns onto beside the firehouse and screams down when they get their first call in the original 1984 movie.

Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters 2 (1989), and Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (2016) have all featured the exterior of the famous firehouse. It has showed up in other movies and TV shows, and there are several toy versions of it, too.

The interior of the Ghostbusters firehouse headquarters was shot in a Los Angeles studio and Fire Station No. 23, a decommissioned firehouse in L.A. It was built in 1910 and closed in 1960. The station was declared a Historic Cultural Monument by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1966. The first film shot there was Hammett (1982), then followed by Ghostbusters in ’84. The Mask, Flatliners, and Police Academy 2 also used that firehouse. Like the NY Public Library scenes, the Ghostbusters are in New York when they are outside, and in Los Angeles whenever they are inside. Cool movie magic!

We got up early and caught a subway down to the Franklin Street stop.

There were a few must see places on my bucket list while in NYC and the firehouse was definitely one of them.

Riding a New York subway was another one, and we got to do that several times while we were there. I enjoyed it and only had a couple strange encounters…

It was a quick and uneventful subway ride from Times Square to Tribeca and the subway let us off just down the street from the firehouse. We immediately saw it on our left after topping the stairs from the subway.

When we got closer we saw that the ladder truck was parked out in front of the firehouse’s truck entrance with its ladder extended all the way up to the roof.

Yeah, I totally geeked!

The crew were doing drills up the ladder to the roof and wearing their full equipment.

It looked like fun, but I’m sure looks are deceiving when you’re wearing all that gear!

I was lucky enough to get a lot of shots of the firetruck while it was in use. It was parked in the middle of the street that Louis and Janine are talking to each other in GB2 when he almost gets run over and then decides to direct traffic.

Here is the passenger side of the firetruck.

Front of the truck with some serious bling- which I’m guessing has holes like that to let air pass through and cut down on wind resistance. Firetrucks aren’t very aerodynamic to begin with.

I loved the Ecto-1 licence plate on the back of the firetruck. The Ghostbusters love was all over the vehicle!

The driver’s side of the truck had a mooglie ghost logo and a memorial bronze plaque for one of their own-  Lieutenant Vincent Halloran. Hook & Ladder No. 8 were among the first responders to the 9/11 attacks and he was the only firefighter that Hook & Ladder 8 lost on 9-11.

Once they were finished training, we even got to watch the ladder lowered back down into its position along the back of the truck before putting it away.

It was amazing to watch them squeeze the large truck through the now small looking doorway..!

We and the small crowd that had gathered to watch were all astounded at how the driver and crew worked to maneuver back into its home.

That took some serious skill and obviously not this driver’s first rodeo- awesome parking job!

Before they parked the truck back inside the firehouse, Nicki and I were able to get a few shots of the interior.

It’s fairly open now, but once that truck is parked inside it’s a pretty cramped working space.

Oh, notice something familiar on that left wall..?

Yep- it’s the sign from Ghostbusters 2!

I love movie props and filming locations, especially ones as iconic and famous as these.

 

Some other interior shots…and there’s a fireman’s pole. Since it’s a working firehouse we didn’t get to try sliding down one of those. I’ve been a fan of those since the ’60s Batman TV show.

I really loved the logos painted on the sidewalk just outside the door. Not sure how long they’ve been there. I know we don’t see them in the movies and I have seen shots of them with some serious wear. I had heard that the firehouse had been renovated so maybe they got repainted then- not sure.

You can’t really tell in the movie but there’s a small alleyway that goes beside and around the other side of the firehouse. My friend Kevin asked me to be sure and get a shot of that for him, so there ya go.

Here are a couple shots of the street that runs behind the firehouse (it’s the one you see the Ecto-1 turn left onto after tearing down the street after leaving the firehouse for the first time) and the other is across the street and behind the firehouse about a block. You can see the Franklin St. subway stop entrance where we got off/on the subway.

 

Not sure what building this is down the street from the firehouse but think it’s a safe bet that it wasn’t built way back in 1903..!

While we were there I got to meet a fellow Ghostbusters fan- Nate! He and his parents Hannah and Mark were visiting from Liverpool. They were hitting all the GB movie locations, too- and had been here before back when Nate was 7.

 

Gave Nate a Memphis Ghostbusters pin, business card, and a couple of stickers. Nate says he wants to start his own Ghostbusters franchise when he gets back home, and Nate’s mum said that she’s going to make him his own Ghostbusters franchise patch. I told her I’ve be happy to trade patches when she does. They bought a firehouse patch, too. That reminds me- need to order more patches! Like me he wasn’t able to bring all of his gear and flightsuit, but he had his PKE meter with him and was wearing this awesome firehouse tee his mother made for him. “I like that shirt, friend..!”

I made sure to leave behind one of our Memphis Ghostbusters patch and sticker as a gift to the firefighters for their collection at the station.

Nicki bought a LADDER 8 tee and got patches for both of us to take home for our collections.

We had a blast visiting the firehouse, but needed to hop back on the subway and head down to the Financial District to catch the Staten Island Ferry. I’ll share that adventure next.

Can’t thank my wife enough for this trip. Hope we can do it again sometime. “New York, New York..!”