A Tour of the Ghostbusters Filming Locations

The Ghostbusters are a New York icon. If you're reading this, it's because you know that and because you've surely watched Ghostbusters over and over, that hilarious cult 80s movie where every second takes place in New York.

Do the math and you'll realize Ghostbusters already turned 40! And from where I stand, it's just as fresh and funny as ever.

Ghostbusters was shot in plenty of real New York locations, so you can follow in the footsteps of parapsychologists Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Raymond Stantz and Dr. Egon Spengler across the city. Here's a route to help you out 👻.

Ghostbusters filming locations in New York City

I've arranged this route around the spots where famous Ghostbusters scenes were shot, following the movie's chronology. You can do the whole walk in half a day (that is, if you don't run into Gozer, Zuul or Slimer along the way):

1. New York Public Library

5th Ave, between 41st and 52nd Streets (Subway line 7, 5 Av station)

The story begins in the main reading room of the gorgeous New York Public Library. We see a librarian putting books back on the shelves while strange paranormal phenomena start happening…

Did you know you can visit the New York Public Library for free?

2. Columbia University

116th St & Broadway (Subway line 1, 116 St-Columbia University station)

At Columbia University, in Morningside Heights in Uptown Manhattan, we meet Dr. Venkman (Bill Murray) for the first time, a researcher at the Paranormal Studies Lab in Columbia's Psychology Department.

Then we see him with Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Spengler (Harold Ramis), investigating a strange «symmetrical book stacking» at the New York Public Library.

Back at Columbia, they learn their research funding has been cut and that they have no choice but to go out on their own (a conversation that takes place on the steps of the main campus plaza, behind the Alma Mater statue).

3. Hook & Ladder Company 8

14 N Moore Street (Subway line 1, Franklin St station)

You've arrived at the famous Ghostbusters firehouse, a building that has served since 1903 as the firehouse for Company 8 in Tribeca (Hook & Ladder Company 8).

The interiors of the Ghostbusters' headquarters were shot on a Los Angeles soundstage, so don't bother the firefighters 🚒.

Get close and you'll see that Hook & Ladder Company 8 is a fully operational firehouse and a beloved one in Manhattan, even if it became internationally famous as the Ghostbusters headquarters.

Either way, the firefighters have been used to visits from fans of the movie for decades (myself included, of course 😉).

Since 1984, dozens of us have shown up at their doors every day, and the firefighters say there's always someone who's surprised to find out it isn't a museum or a movie set.

While I'm at it: at Madame Tussauds New York you can actually see Ghostbusters characters and scenes, Slimer included.

Besides doing their actual job, the firefighters at Tribeca's Company 8 take the movie-fan community seriously, often taking part in special «Ghostbusters» events.

Case in point: check out the company logo painted on the sidewalk, a little rough around the edges but painted and repainted with love for 40 years:

4. 55 Central Park West

The building is a block from Lincoln Center, so you can walk there (learn how to plan your routes in New York).

We first see Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) walking into her apartment at 55 Central Park West on Manhattan's Upper West Side. We also meet her neighbor Louis Tully (Rick Moranis).

Strange things happen in Dana's apartment and she hires the Ghostbusters, becoming their first client…

This 1929 art deco building is also known as the Ghostbusters Building. In the movie, it was supposedly designed by a demonic architect named Ivo Shandor, who founded a secret society that performed its rituals in the rooftop structures. In real life, neither Shandor nor that fabulous roof exists.

Fun fact: 55 Central Park West's famous residents have included Calvin Klein and Donna Karan.

Now you're probably waiting to hear where the Sedgewick Hotel is, the place where they catch green, slimy Slimer? Bad news: the exterior is a hotel in Los Angeles and the interiors were soundstages.

5. Lincoln Center

165 W 65th Street (Subway line 1, 66 St – Lincoln Center station)

Dana walks out of Lincoln Center (she's a professional musician, a cellist, presumably with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra) and runs into Venkman, who is waiting for her on the big Lincoln Center plaza, doing the kind of goofing around only Bill Murray can pull off.

6. Tavern on the Green in Central Park

67th Street at Central Park West (Subway line 1, 66 St – Lincoln Center station)

On the terrace of 55 Central Park West, the «pets» of Gozer the Gozerian (Zuul the Gatekeeper and Vinz Clortho the Keymaster) wake up, and the possession of Dana and Louis begins.

You surely remember the scene where Louis Tully, after a long chase, is cornered and possessed by the former gargoyle in front of the diners at Central Park‘s Tavern on the Green.

This beautiful building dates back to 1870 and was turned into a restaurant in 1934. After two years of restoration it reopened in 2014, so start saving up for a very nerdy dinner beside those big windows 🙂

You can check out other famous Central Park movie locations in this other post.

Now it's time to say goodbye in front of the «Shandor Building» (55 W Central Park), the elegant temple of Gozer the Gozerian on the Upper West Side, where everything ends happily… at least until Ghostbusters II.

If you enjoyed this tour of the Ghostbusters locations in New York, let me know and I'll write you more geeky posts like this one, like this article on movies filmed in New York that we should all watch before a trip.