WANAMAKER'S
THE EAGLE AND THE ORGAN
“Meet me at the Eagle” was a commonly used expression in decades past, and referred to the huge 2,500-pound bronze eagle statue that perched majestically in the Grand Court of John Wanamaker's department store in Center City.
Sorry - we refuse to call it Hecht's, or Lord & Taylor, or Macy's which it later became prior to closing its doors for good a few years back. When you are a Philadelphian, the Great Grey Lady of Broad Street will always be Wanamaker's.
In its heyday, Wanamaker's was as fine a department store as there was in all of America, featuring couture shops and an elegant restaurant where doyennes of high society lunched during a pleasant day of shopping. During every holiday season, the Grand Court was decorated with a huge tree, animatrons and lights.
And high above the ground floor stood Wanamaker's most prized possession - a massive, gleaming, 287-ton pipe organ that at one time was the world's largest and played daily to everyone's delight.
The organ was originally built for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, but its construction costs bankrupted the owner. John Wanamaker - merchant prince and marketer extraordinaire - purchased the organ for his new namesake department store. It was shipped to Philadelphia in 13 freight cars and took two years to fully install.
Philadelphians first got to hear the organ played on June 22, 1911, and again later that year when President William Howard Taft dedicated the store.
The organ originally had **only** 10,000 pipes but that was deemed inadequate! Wanamaker opened a private organ factory in the store attic, where 40 full-time workers enlarged the instrument to its current glory. It now has 6 manuals (keyboards) and over 28,000 pipes.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, anyone?
The building's current owner plans to convert the higher floors into luxury apartments and offices. Details must still be worked out, but two things will remain for all to enjoy - the eagle and the organ.
