Slap on your proton packs and visit the Ghostbusters firehouse in real life - with a catch

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Walking around New York City is like popping through cinema history – you can wander past places where they filmed some of your favorite movies almost without meaning to. It is easy to stumble on places you’ve seen a thousand times in movies and TV and not even realize it. Like the firehouse from the original Ghostbusters movies. Did you know it is a real, functional firehouse in New York that you can see if you know where to look?

The iconic firehouse from the Ghostbusters franchise is known as Hook & Ladder Company 8’s Firehouse and is a fully functional and active New York City Fire Department service and has been since it was built back in 1903. It is located on the corner of North Moore Street and Varick Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. The story goes that during location scouting, Dan Akroyd suggested the firehouse because he was familiar with the neighborhood and liked the classic look of the exterior. Because it is on a public street, nothing is stopping you from visiting it the next time you’re in New York doing a bit of sightseeing.

There is a catch, however – because it is an active fire station that responds to actual emergencies in New York, Hook & Ladder Company 8’s Firehouse isn’t open to the public so you can’t sneak inside to have a look around. You can ask the firefighters stationed there to give you a tour, but the best they’ll be able to show you is a replica sign used in Ghostbusters II and a handful of melted clocks they’ve pulled out of fires.

Disappointed? You shouldn’t be because the building was only used for external shots of the Ghostbusters’ firehouse. The interior shots were a combination of a Los Angeles studio and a decommissioned LA firehouse, so going inside would kind of defeat the illusion of stepping inside the world of Ghostbusters. (Sorry.)

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