This summer, the abandoned remains of Moore McCormack’s Brooklyn facility are being wiped off the face of the planet.
The former Moore McCormack property was located at the foot of 23rd street in Sunset Park. Moore McCormack was a large shipping company, This facility was known as a ‘break bulk‘ facility where freight was manually unloaded from ships and split into smaller shipments to individual customers.
After World War 2, Moore McCormack became a very busy place – so much so that in 1960, they built a huge new pier warehouse. This pier could accommodate the unloading of up to 6 ships at a time.
Moore McCormack’s massive pier in 1960. The buildings that remained until 2016 are on the lower left.
This success also drew crime. The piers of Brooklyn were manned by mafia controlled union labor, largely Italian immigrants. At the head of these Unions was ‘Tough Tony’ Anastasio, brother to the murderous crime boss Albert Anastasia. These union members were brawlers, with the occasional riot resulting from disputes on who would unload cargo. The Anastasios even took credit for the sinking of the SS Normandie.
The nefarious looting of cargo was a simple reality of doing business for decades. Security guards were often abused during these robberies. These crimes lasted right up to the 1980s, when half a million dollars worth of Tin was looted from the Moore McCormack terminal.
While these robberies and union relations surely crammed Moore McCormack’s bottom like, the company was ultimately killed by capitalism. Trans-ocean freight movements were rapidly becoming containerized. These containers were carried on huge boats. A small terminal like Moore McCormack’s simply didn’t have space to moor one of these huge vessels, let alone the property to unload hundreds of truck-sized containers at once. These containers were also being transported by rail, stacked two containers high. Moore McCormacks had no rail connection (though a rail terminal did exist next door until the 1960s), and the freight tracks of Brooklyn and Queens were blocked from this container traffic by overpasses that are not tall enough. By the early 1980s, Moore McCormack was dead.
With it, their large pier warehouse disappeared. I haven’t found a record of exactly what happened to it, but one can assume it was heavily vandalized and demolished by the early 2000s (the same fate of pier warehouses throughout the harbor).
2016 view of the property – compare it to the photo above. Magic disappearing pier!
For a short while, one of the buildings here was rented out by Sheba exporters – a shipper of secondhand clothing. There’s more information about them within this link. When we published the article about Sheba in 2011, we left out Moore McCormack’s history so as not to give away the location (if we had, it would have been overrun with all manner of crooks).
Rear buildings, blurry rainy day.
It sat abandoned for the past 20 years. During that time, we had free range of the place. I was always amazed at how this set of buildings, located right along a busy road and clearly visible from the BQE, never seemed to be noticed by ‘urban explorers’ or graffiti artists.
That’s not to say this abandoned building didn’t contain some great graffiti jewels, right up until the end. A set of pieces by internationally famous Utah & Ether were located at the rear of the top floor. There was also some really old LTV Goon shit.
This spring (2016), demolition work on these abandoned buildings began. Within the next month there will be no trace that these buildings ever stood here.
The only remaining trace of this facility will be a set of signs along the BQE, and it’s only a matter of time before the powers that be remove those as well.
RIP Moore McCormacks.
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I caught this location at the time of demolition. Sadly I could not enter the location. Surprisingly, I use to pass here driving to the supermarket all the time. Never noticed it until it was too late.
Lets build it right back.
Interesting read. Wish I’d known about this before it was demolished. Noticed the Moore McCormack sign today on the BQE.
My grandfather worked at the print shop for MMc. I have a memory of touring the warehouse pier and it was full of coffee beans in towering sacks. So impressive. Sad it was lost.
My father was Port Engineer there until 1978 I believe when he passed
I was 3rd officer on a small break-bulk vessel that would dock at this pier in the early 1980s, American Atlantic Line . Sad to see it go.
There was a bar right outside the gate, first place we would stop after returning from a run to South America.
Anyone remember the name?
I can remember the last years of Moore McCormack Line’s Brooklyn pier operations. They did attempt containership service Brooklyn for a few short years 1964 thru 1968 to Northern Europe. They had six large ships. known as the “Constellation class, all built 1964 thru 1965 as partial container carrying vessels and combined with palletized break bulk cargoes.”Mormacargo”, “Mormacregiel”, “Mormacvega”, “Mormacaltair” “Mormaclynx”and the”Mormacdrago” They operated from the 25th Street pier ,next to the Brooklyn main 23rd Street terminal. The ships came in from Northern Europe on a Monday morning, discharge and load during the week and sail late that Friday night. The Brooklyn partial container service ended when the newer and larger ships carrying mostly large containers, known as the “Seabridge” class ships “Mormacsea”, “Mormacsun” and Mormacstar.” They shifted their Europena service operations to Port Elizabeth New Jersey only to last a short time and ended in 1970, when the three larger ships were sold to American Export Isbrandsen Lines. The main 23rd Stree remained open and continued break bulk freight operations to East coast of South America til early 1980’s and that pier was soon closed, as Moore McCormack Lines went through many operational changes.
MooreMacormac Lines had a partial container operation at 25th Street Brooklyn, next to the main 23rd Street Terminal for the Northern European service. The small container operation lasted from mid 1960’s til 1969, when they built four other larger ships with a larger container capacity. That operation was moved to Port Newark New Jersey late 1969, This operation lasted for only a short time and ended in 1970, due the the extensive competition from European ships, such Atlantic Container Line, known as ACL ships carried larger capacity of both containers and vehicles
My dad served on a few Mormac ships in the US Maritime Service/Merchant Marine during WWII & Korea between 1943-1955
Mormacoak
Mormacwren
Mormacsaga
I worked in the office of Mormac at 2 Broadway NYC and then moved to a new office at 23rd. St. in B’klyn
for 9 years as a Claims Adjuster. This was a bitter-sweet article.
My father, Capt. John Gillan, was the
Superintendent of the terminal for most
of the 1960’s. I worked their one summer
decommissioning Librty Ships , readying
them for the “Ghost Fleet” north up the
Hudson. I was a very young 19 year-old
from River Edge, NJ. I kept my head down
and my mouth shut. Looking back, it was
a great experience. I saw how hard and
long a lot people worked, just to stay
above water. I still try to remember to
overtip.
I took my 1st ship as an Apprentice Engineer on a 1624 class boom ship, the MorMac Glen on July 6th, 1976. The CE was Frank Zapata and 1st AE was Robert Foster …. the 2 very best ole salt engineers a young engineer could sail with to start what would become a 32 year career in the USMM.
My 1st trip on the Glen began after the huge bicentennial celebrations in NYC harbor. Departing Brooklyn a coupe days later, we sailed to Port Canaveral to load cargo for Ascension Island and onward to South Africa and Mozambique. After returning to SA from Maputo we sailed onto Walvis Bay, Namibia, where 4 baby elephants were loaded on the #4 hatch cover behind the superstructure for transport to Brooklyn’s 23rd Street Terminal. The elephants were destined to go to zoo’s in the mid-west. I got 3 weeks of fun during my off hours to pet, feed and hose them down on the run back.
The 2nd trip was impacted by an embargo against SA’s apartheid political system, so after discharging cargo in Cape Town we diverted to Brazil before heading back to Brooklyn.
Two things are memorable from the old 23rd St pier warehouse … the intense smell and sight of coffee bean sack piles in storage waiting to be distributed and the salty bar just outside the gate. That was a great little watering hole.
Funny when I think back to Frank and Robert, they told the best sea stories from brothels of their youth to being torpedoed during WW2 and would joke by asking me to tell them a sea story … which I couldn’t do at the time, being it was my 1st ship. It would be awesome if those gents were still alive to pass along all I’ve seen and done since.
Wish I could post pictures of the Glen in Durban, SA after a fresh coat of paint was applied to the hull and the elephants we delivered to the 23rd Street Terminal while they were in their crates on the hatch cover in this post.
the bar was called the marine tavern
Does anyone remember when they had the Christmas displays? Does anyone have any pictures? I remember going here as a little girl & being mesmerized by the displays! It gave me a love for the holidays I’ll never let go of…
My grandfather and great uncles all worked for this line from the late 1940’s- 1970’s when he passed away. They were long shoreman that unloaded the ships, all of which were italian. I have heard many memories of the work there. Not all good.
Thank you for an interesting article and link to the article regarding the tin heist. In the mid to late 70s I hauled many truckloads of tin plate from Canada into 23rd St. Pier. Occasionally I would have a load of “rags” which necessitated stopping at World Trade Centre to pick up shipping documents and cash to pay for offloading. I had many memorable experiences inside and outside of the pier. I hope to visit the area again some day.
Moore McCormack was my favorite shipping company. A good company to work for. I am sure their South American route was a contributing factor. Nothing like getting stuck in Santos for days waiting for the rain to stop so they could load coffee. It is amazing I (or anyone else) could survive that. The bar was right out of The Godfather. I NEVER saw even the slightest bit of trouble in there. It just didn’t happen.
Alison, so funny you should ask if anyone had pictures of the Christmas display. I have a video somewhere, might be on Betamax. It’s so old the tape might not even play IF I managed to find a tape deck. My father was part of the crew that used to put it together. He built a lot of the scenery, e.g., warehouse, church, manger, etc, and a longshoreman by the name of Sal Penise painted them. When the pier closed up, my father took several of the decorations, some of which I mentioned, and put them out every year in front of the house. I still have the warehouse and continue to put that out every year, it’s the last item and I can’t part with it. I want my grandkids to see it and know the story behind it. They used to entertain kids with Down syndrome every year. I was lucky enough to participate and saved the evening once when the music died. I managed to repair a belt drive and got the music going again. I found your post because I was feeling nostilgic and started looking to see if there are any pictures or video of the display. I couldn’t wait to go there every year as a small child and young adult. I’ll always remember that.
Nick
The name of the bar was Muscarellas…
I sailed out of the 23rd Street Terminal as Chief Mate 1965 into 1967 when transferred to the SS Argentina as Staff Captain out of NYC piers. November 1967 I returned to the 23rd St as Port Captain and worked in the Deck Dept Office in the “L” shaped building in the original picture, next to the Mariner’s Bar on the corner. The abandoned building was our Labor Relations, Ship Personnel, Security, record storage, claims departments on the second floor and warehouse on the first floor, with stevedoring dept on the canal side (West) end. I was then employed by US Lines in 1983 as Supt of Cargo Vessels to move pertinent office records to Cranford and checking on the former States Line ships to be discarded, moored at 23rd St; plus integrating the working Constellation Class vessels into their fleet operations. Fulfilling my obligation with USL, I returned to sea as Captain on a yet to be delivered MPS ship being built at Beth Ship, Quincy Mass. I retired from the MV 1st Lt. Jack Lummus in 2001.
Gus Curcuro Remained as the last ex MM employee at the terminal in charge of maintaining the pier until USL vacated. (alone in his office in the L shaped building.) I occasionally passed by over the years and couldn’t see beyond a lot of tall machinery to notice the pier was removed; this was the first I knew! Due to circumstances, I haven’t been by there in years. My last time, the MoorMac sign was still on the warehouse building. Wonder where it went? I’m certain Kings Point or SUNY Maritime would have liked it for their museum.
Wow – thank you for all of this. I really couldn’t tell what that space was used for when I was there. I’m not sure what came of the sign, though I suspect the worst. There was that road sign along the BQE too, though I’m pretty sure they removed it in recent years.
Nick… Please find me on FB!! I’d LOVE to tell you WHY this is so important to me!!! If I could pick your brain for some information I would be EVER so grateful!!! 😉
My Father worked for Moore-McCormack steam ship lines for 40 years. First in Manhattan at 2 Broadway then at the 23rd street pier in Brooklyn ny. He worked as a Superviser of the print shop. Also the bar just outside the gates was called Tarantino’s. My father and I at lunch there many time. It was a great Era to remember.
I remember a a very young child taking a cruie with my parents on a McC ship from NY to Florida; it wa in the 30s.