This was your grandmother’s department store. And maybe even her grandmother’s, too.
Upon its completion in 1911, John Wanamaker’s store at 13th and Market streets in Philadelphia saw generations of families do their shopping at one of the country’s unique and elegant venues.
In addition to merchandise, families experienced annual light shows, monorail rides above toy departments, concerts from the world’s largest organ and a statue that launched a Philly catchphrase, “Meet me at the Eagle.”
Sadly, the future of the building is now uncertain. Macy’s, the current owner, will be closing the store this Sunday after a two-decade run. Before it closes, though, a series of organists will provide free recitals Saturday with the Wanamaker Organ as part of a daylong concert. The performances will be 30 minutes each and take place between 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The city and the building’s ownership group, TF Cornerstone, have announced that they will work together to “reimagine” the building.
Before we head into the future, though, let’s remember and celebrate what made Wanamaker’s a Philadelphia icon.
A little of everything
Twelve stories high with a below ground floor for bargains, patrons could seemingly find anything and everything amidst an artistic setting. Customers could purchase men’s and women’s fashions, pianos, sporting goods, furniture, toys, hats, shoes, home decor, jewelry and much more. It also had three restaurants, including the Crystal Tea Room, where ladies wore white gloves at its tables and could order first-rate cuisine.
Born in Philadelphia, John Wanamaker (1838-1922) was one of the most innovative and inventive merchants in U.S. history. He was the first merchant to put price tags on items (to stop bargaining between staff and customers); he was the first to offer a refund if buyers were not happy with their purchases; and he opened restaurants and waiting rooms in his stores.
But his biggest idea was to build not only a department store, but a monument.
In 1902, he hired Daniel Burnham, one of the nation’s most notable architects, to design a new Philadelphia store and an addition to the New York store. (Burnham also designed the Marshall Field Department Store in Chicago and Filene’s in Boston.)
Construction started that same year. The store was built in three stages so it could be open for business while being completed. With economic downturns and delays, it took nine years to finish. It had more than a million square feet of shopping space. In the center was the great court, which stood six stories high. On December 30, 1911, President William Howard Taft participated in the opening ceremonies.
“I feel that the Wanamaker building says a lot about the city and Wanamaker himself,” said Michael Lisicky, author of Wanamaker’s: Meet Me at the Eagle.
“In the late 1800s, Boston and Philadelphia were largely viewed as the country’s centers for culture and commerce. America looked at those cities for cultural and commercial inspiration. Wanamaker was a master merchant and his skill, along with his faith, served as his guide. Everything he did seemed to have a purpose,” said Lisicky. “The engagement of Daniel Burnham, the country’s most famous commercial architect, proves that Wanamaker was looking to build a multi-purpose monument.”
“The Wanamaker Building, when it opened, probably represented the pinnacle of modernity,” said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
“I would say it was considered an architectural and commercial marvel, both here and around the country, if not the world,” Steinke said. “Of course, our City Hall had just been completed across the street on a scale about par with the Wanamaker Building, but a different style. City Hall reflected a different era, of 30, 40 years before, when French Second Empire architecture was in vogue. But by the time 1911 rolled around, it was definitely considered passe.”
The building also housed a huge bronze statue of an eagle that Wanamaker purchased for $10,000 (it had been unveiled at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis). Made in Frankfurt, Germany, it has more than 5,000 bronze feathers, all wrought by hand. If you wanted to rendezvous with someone downtown, you might suggest, “Meet me at the Eagle,” (or “Iggle” in Philadelphia-ese), which became a catchphrase like New York’s “the city that never sleeps.”
A large organ, also built for the 1904 World’s Fair, was added to the grand court. Hourlong concerts serenaded shoppers twice a day. The Wanamakers expanded the instrument to three times its original size, making it the largest organ in the world.
After John Wanamaker’s death, his son Rodman took over operation of the stores. A statue of John Wanamaker was installed at City Hall. With the exception of the store in New York City, Wanamaker’s was slow to open branch stores and didn’t do so until after John’s death.
Rodman Wanamaker had an interest in showcasing the store as an arts-and-cultural center as well as a retail operation, Lisicky wrote in his book, adding that at Easter, two large religious paintings were displayed at the store.
In 1956, Wanamaker’s began a Christmas Light Show, held in the six-story-high great court. The show was several stories high with blinking lights. Parents took their children to the shows, and the children took their children to the shows. The program was narrated by John Facenda, who for many years anchored the city’s CBS affiliate news broadcast and is still remembered for his narrations of NFL Films.
“[John] wanted to give Philadelphia a monument, fair trade, philanthropic resources and art, for entertainment and educational purposes. And much of the artistic component of that building and business should be credited to John’s son Rodman. The power of that building might not have made the punch without Rodman’s artistic flair,” Lisicky said. Some of the world’s greatest organ players performed at the store’s organ, and were sometimes accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other times, the orchestra performed by itself.
Wanamaker’s was not the only department store in Center City. There were a bunch of them. Each of the Market Street department stores — Wanamaker’s, Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbels, Lit Brothers, Snellenburg’s, and Frank & Seder — had its own identity and purpose, Lisicky explained.
“Wanamaker’s and Strawbridge’s were at the top and many Philadelphia families were either a Wanamaker or a Strawbridge family, much like Coke and Pepsi,” Lisicky said. “Wanamaker’s image was largely guided by its Center City flagship, while Strawbridge & Clothier’s image was defined by quality merchandise and familiar service and the leadership from two of the city’s most prominent Quaker families.”
“And though I grew up, researched, wrote and lectured about Wanamaker’s, I came from a Strawbridge & Clothier family,” he said.
‘Presence’ and ‘Elegance’
Ron Francis, a lifelong Philadelphia resident, said the Wanamaker Building “had a presence” and “an elegance” with its grand exterior, huge columns at its Market Street entrance and smaller ones throughout the store, along with its marble interior. You were really aware you were in an elegant setting when you saw the red-suited elevator operators in Wanamaker’s, he added.
Francis recalled how he and his father rented tuxedos for his sister’s 1970 wedding at the store’s ground floor. They rented white dinner jackets, shirts and cummerbunds, “the whole kit and caboodle, which I thought was kind of cool.”
Sally Crescenzo moved to Philadelphia from Milwaukee when she got married. When her family from Wisconsin visited, she took them to the store. “It was a wonderful excursion. It was Philadelphia,” she said. Other tourists and visitors went to the store, said Crescenzo. “Wanamaker’s was on their list to visit, because everybody knew about it,” she said.
Both Francis and Crescenzo recalled how people “dressed up” when they went downtown for shopping.
“[Women] wouldn’t think of going and shopping in a store like that and not have full makeup on,” Crescenzo recalled. “A man never minded taking his wife shopping either at Wanamaker’s or [its] New York store. The shopping was important; he could go shopping, too.”
Ellen Katz’s mother worked full-time at Wanamaker’s for 24 years, and she joined the staff while in high school. She worked part-time on Wednesday nights (when stores in town stayed open late) and full-time on Saturdays.
“I loved it, every minute of it, it was one of the best jobs I think I ever had,” said Katz, who now lives in East Norriton.
“I stayed on after I graduated high school. I worked in the little girls department, I did displays, I cashed out older salespeople, emptied the cash registers at night, it was just a fantastic place, I got a lot of experience there,” Katz said.
“It was incredible [going there]. I think you didn’t realize it at the time, it was something you were just doing, but later on you realized what the store was,” she said. “People who worked there really liked their job, there was so much about that store that was just special.”
What made it special?
“I think the people [who] ran departments and worked there, there was a sense of pride. People who did the work took pride in what they did. I don’t remember anyone complaining – you were happy to be there,” she said. “It was fun for a teenager. I got discounts on clothing; I never dressed so well [before].”
Katz’s mother, Ethel Blank, began at the store in the mid-1950s and worked at Wanamaker’s in the glove department on the main floor and in the hosiery department on the ground floor until her death in 1978. Katz stayed at the store for two years after she graduated high school. When her grandson was 4 or 5, she took him to the store’s light shows. “He’s getting married next month,” Katz said.
Changes
According to Lisicky, by the 1970s, the Wanamaker family was not interested in running the main store and its city and suburban outlets. There was increased competition as New York department stores opened in Philadelphia, and suburban malls were drawing customers who no longer came into the city.
The business was sold several times :
- The Wanamaker family sold the chain to Carter Hawley Hale of Los Angeles in 1978, but the Wanamaker name remained.
- It was then acquired by Woodworth & Lothrop in 1986, but the Wanamaker name continued.
- The May Company acquired the chain in 1995, changing the store name briefly to Strawbridge’s and then Hecht’s.
- Not long after, Federated (which owned Macy’s), bought out the May Co. and converted the store into a Lord & Taylor, and then ultimately to Macy’s.
About this time the building served as the backdrop for the Philly cult/camp classic movie, “Mannequin,” which starred Kim Cattrall as an Egyptian princess reincarnated as a dummy in a Philadelphia department store window.
After the company was sold, the National Park Service designated the Wanamaker Building a National Historical Landmark. Two years later, the Wanamaker Organ became the first pipe organ designated a National Historic Landmark.
Renovations were made, including converting upper floors to office space – in 1988, the Crystal Tea Room was closed. The underground level was converted to a parking garage. (The display windows for the bargain basement are now blacked out, but the outside metal trim is still there on the walls of the Market-Frankford 13th Street Station.)
In December 2024, it was announced the 13th and Market Street location, along with 66 other Macy’s stores, would close in March. At close of business, the lights will be turned out on this department store, forever. We’ll see what happens next.
By the end of the pandemic, said Steinke, “that phase of the building’s life had clearly run its course, and the numbers I’ve seen the building is approaching 80 percent vacancy and when you add into that Macy’s was pulling out, leaving the three floors of retail dark, the building has reached a point where it needs a new lease on life.”
TF Cornerstone, a New York City development firm, has been in negotiations to acquire the building. As for future plans, there’s talk that TF Cornerstone is exploring residential and retail operations at the site, and the company has indicated it hopes to keep the building’s integrity intact.
“I’m cautiously optimistic about their plans for the Wanamaker Building and reassured by their statements showing respect for the building’s history and traditions,” Steinke said.
Final visits
In late February, people came to the store not to shop but to reminisce. One couple, Joanne and Mark from Downingtown, used to meet at the Eagle when they had summer jobs in Center City.
“We wanted to take one last look,” said Joanne.
Joyce Peipert met her husband in Philadelphia while he was a medical resident. They’d meet at the Eagle. Now a resident of Vermont, she and her husband were visiting Philadelphia for a medical convention and she wanted to see the Eagle one last time.
Clayton Prince, who lives in the city’s Mt. Airy section, used to come with his mother, who told him, “Meet at the Eagle if you get lost.” He took several pictures of the bird statue, including a selfie of him standing by it. He’s heard things about the store’s future, “but I’m kind of concerned about the organ,” he said.
Gary Morris, who grew up in Chalfont, said, “My parents took me to see this organ.” They also brought him to the store at Christmas to ride the monorail above the toy department. He’s moving soon to West Palm Beach, where his mother now lives. “My mom starts crying when I talk about it closing,” he said. On this day, Morris was accompanied by his son, and he wanted the teenager to see the organ in person.
Ron Francis, the lifelong Philadelphia resident, had a junior high school music teacher who would, when she was a young girl, visit the store’s ninth floor, which was one of the best places in the city to buy sheet music. Once, when she found what she was looking for, she went to a piano to check out the music. A woman heard her and introduced herself and commented on how well she played. It was the wife of Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., the violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Her son, Ephraim, Jr., starred in the 1960s ABC TV series, “The FBI”. Alva Zimbalist gave Francis’ music teacher her card and asked that the teacher’s mother contact her to arrange a visit to her home.
During the visit, Mrs. Zimbalist, whose family owned the Curtis Publishing empire, remarked to the girl’s mother about her daughter’s talent and would like to help further her studies. She gave a check for $1,000 to the mother so the daughter could continue studying music.
“Those were the types of things that happened at Wanamaker’s,” Francis said.
