Cinemax Transforming Orchard and Broome Into Period Set for ‘The Knick’
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For the next week, the junction of Orchard and Broome will relive its turn-of-the-century past. Carpenter crews arrived yesterday morning and are currently busy transforming the preserved “museum block” into a period-specific set for the upcoming Cinemax series entitled The Knick.
Table saws are spinning; contractors are installing exterior elements to the Tenement Museum front office and Ja-Mil Uniforms; Ernest Sewn was cleared of its contents and will be closed through November 14; sign posts and bike racks will be temporarily removed. This is a huge production, and apparently requires a nightwatchman. Set construction will continue through the weekend, with filming slated for Wednesday and Thursday.
The Knick is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Clive Owen. It focuses on the Knickerbocker Hospital, and is predominantly centered in the downtown scene of 1900. Official synopsis of the show goes something like this – “Set in downtown New York in 1900, THE KNICK centers on Knickerbocker Hospital and the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff, who push the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics.” Sounds like a souped-up throwback version of ER or Grey’s Anatomy.
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By the way, the Knickerbocker Hospital did indeed exist at 70 Convent Avenue in Harlem. It was founded in 1862 as the Manhattan Dispensary, a temporary Civil War “tent facility” for wounded Union Army soldiers returning from the battlefield. The building still stands, but now carries a residential function.