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Nosy Neighbor: Is There a Moore Street?
A friend asked last night if there was a Moore Street in Tribeca, or just a North Moore Street, and I froze up, embarrassed I didn’t know. Am I just a hopeless Tribeca newbie and everyone else knows the answer? —W.
There is indeed a Moore Street, but not in Tribeca. It’s down near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, running one block between Water and Pearl. (Good luck finding it online; Google, in its infinite wisdom, will direct you to N. Moore.)
The question for a while was whether the “N.” on “N. Moore” street signs referred to “North” or to “Nathaniel.” In 1984, the New York Times dug into the matter, noting that “recently a number of city maps and documents identified it as Nathaniel Moore. The Board of Estimate even approved resolutions using the name Nathaniel.” You can read the whole article, or I can save you the time and just say that it’s North, not Nathaniel. Also, Moore Street appears to have been named for Benjamin Moore, “Episcopal Bishop of New York, rector of Trinity Church, president of Kings College and—in its reincarnation—Columbia College. He was the father of Clement Clarke (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) Moore. And he was 41 years old when the street was named.”
That’s Moore Street pictured below. Not much of a destination, is it? According to the Times, it “used to run to the East River, but has been truncated in recent years.”
Got a question? Email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.
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For what it’s worth: According to Henry Moscow’s “The Street Book”, Moore Street was originally “Moor Street, off which ships anchored in the East River. The custom house stood nearby and a pier was built in front of it.”
“Someone, possibly a real person but it doesn’t seem that way, asked the New York Times why N. Moore Street has the “N.” The answer: ‘North Moore […] was named after Benjamin Moore, a rector of Trinity Church and an Episcopal bishop of New York who was the president of Columbia College from 1801 to 1811. He was a British loyalist during the American Revolution but remained prominent in the church; his former Tory sympathies were no barrier to his promotion to bishop in 1801. The street was called North Moore to distinguish it from Moore Street in the financial district, which already existed. Moore Street, according to Henry Moscow’s Street Book, was not named for anyone, but was derived from Moor Street, off which ships anchored in the East River.’”
https://tribecacitizen.wpengine.com/2012/08/19/in-the-news-pier-40-restrooms-closed/
This 1870 map labels the street “North Moore.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20031013132007/http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Map/1870/1870.NYC.html
I cannot express how satisfying it is to finally know. Thanks, Tribeca Citizen!
Or this:
https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/002100/002185/notes/steele.dir/parsonstech/genealogy/trees/jgordon/d110.htm
John Moore’s son Stephen was the only patriot in the family. He sold part of his family’s land on the Hudson called West Point to the US in 1790 (deal closed by Alexander Hamilton).