North Moore Street
North Moore Street is a moderately trafficked street in TriBeCa, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs roughly east–west between West Broadway and West Street. Automotive traffic is westbound only.
Naming
On street signs and maps, the street is usually written as "N. Moore Street". Despite persistent stories that it was named for Nathaniel Moore, the street is named for Benjamin Moore (1748–1816), the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, the president of Columbia College (now Columbia University), and the father of Clement Clarke Moore. Bishop Moore is remembered for having given Holy Communion to Alexander Hamilton on his deathbed. [1] The addition of "North" or "N" avoids confusion with the older Moore Street, a short street near The Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan across from 1 New York Plaza. (There is no "South Moore Street".)
Culture
In 1969 Fluxus artist Joe Jones opened his JJ Music Store (aka Tone Deaf Music Store) at 18 North Moore Street, where he presented his repetitive drone music machines. He created there an installation in the window so that anyone could press numerous door buttons to play the noise music machines displayed there.[2] Jones also presented small musical installation performances there, alone or with other Fluxus artists, such as Yoko Ono and John Lennon,[3] among others. From April 18th to June 12th, 1970, Ono and Lennon (aka Plastic Ono Band) presented a series of Fluxus art events and concerts there called GRAPEFRUIT FLUXBANQUET. It was promoted with a poster designed by Fluxus leader George Maciunas. Performances included Come Impersonating John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Grapefruit Banquet (April 11-17) by George Maciunas, Yoshimasa Wada, Bici Hendricks (aka Bici Forbes), Geoffrey Hendricks, and Robert Watts; Do It Yourself (April 11-17) by Yoko Ono; Tickets by John Lennon + Fluxagents (April 18-24) with Wada, Ben Vautier and Maciunas; Clinic by Yoko Ono + Hi Red Center (April 25-May 1); Blue Room by Yoko + Fluxmasterliars (May 2-8); Weight & Water by Yoko + Fluxfiremen (May 9-15); Capsule by Yoko + Flux Space Center (May 16-22) with Maciunas, Paul Sharits, George Brecht, Ay-O, Ono, Watts, John Cavanaugh; Portrait of John Lennon as a Young Cloud by Yoko + Everybody (May 23-29); The Store by Yoko + Fluxfactory (May 30-June 5), with Ono, Maciunas, Wada, Ay-O; and finally Examination by Yoko + Fluxschool (June 6-12) with Ono, Geoffrey Hendricks, Watts, Mieko Shiomi and Robert Filliou.[4] After moving out, Joe Jones's store-loft space became the art studio of No Wave artist Joseph Nechvatal, where he presented occasional Colab art events, then, in 1980, that of musician Jon Hassell, and finally that of video artist Bill Viola, before being merged into Walkers Restaurant.
Throughout the late-seventies Charlemagne Palestine performed long piano concerts regularly in his loft on North Moore Street.[5] Since 1981, the digital art studio of Manfred Mohr has been located at 20 N. Moore.
Exterior shots of the Ghostbusters headquarters were filmed at the FDNY Hook & Ladder No. 8 firehouse, located at 14 North Moore Street, at its intersection with Varick Street. A small parking lot at the corner of West Broadway a block away was "a staging area for foam and vehicles ... [for] the classic" 1984 comedy. The interiors of the building were filmed in Fire Station No. 23 in Los Angeles.
The same W. Broadway/N. Moore corner has also been the location for the diner set of the 1994 film It Could Happen to You, a set site for Zoolander in 2001 and, in 2006, the location for a free-standing billboard advertising the animated film Enchanted.[6]
Notable residents
- John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1960-1999), journalist and lawyer[7]
- Katy Perry
- Joe Jones
- Russell Brand
- Harvey Keitel
- Joseph Nechvatal
- Lindsay Lohan
- Jon Hassell
- Ice Cube
- David Letterman
- Charlemagne Palestine
- Ed Burns
- Bill Viola
- Christy Turlington
- Nathan Lane
- Manfred Mohr
References
- Steinhauer, Jennifer. res=9F0CE0DD1738F937A25752C1A965958260&scp=2&sq=%22n.%20moore%20street%22&st=cse "F.Y.I.", The New York Times, November 14, 1993. Accessed August 19, 2008. "Even city agency folks have been tricked into believing that Nathaniel Moore story. The Manhattan Borough President's office says North Moore Street, in TriBeCa, was named after Benjamin Moore, the Episcopal Bishop of New York in the early 1800s and the president of what was then Columbia College, now Columbia University."
- Interview with Joe Jones by Nakagawa Shin (1992)
- Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press, pp. 206-209
- [Joint Yoko Ono, John Lennon, & Fluxgroup Project / Press Release -- April 1, 1970]
- Charlemagne Palestine The Lower Depths
- Boyle, Wickham, "Hollywood returns to Tribeca’s ‘Enchanted’ corner" Archived 2012-01-10 at the Wayback Machine, downtown express, June 16–22, 2006 (19:5). Retrieved 2012-04-02.
- Dunlap, David W. "For Once-Gritty TriBeCa, a Golden Glow ", The New York Times, July 30, 2000. Accessed December 22, 2008. "Even after the opening of the swank TriBeCa Grand Hotel, even under the global spotlight that followed the late John F. Kennedy Jr., who lived on North Moore Street, TriBeCa is still small town -- albeit a town that is industrial at its Belgian-block, iron-canopy core, where residents fight for every inch of lawn and garden."
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to North Moore Street (Manhattan). |
- "New York City Street Names", forum, JonnyMac, lead contributor, January 26, 2003 start.
- "N Moore St, New York, NY", Google Maps.