When New York City real estate developer TF Cornerstone announced, on Thursday, the March 2025 closing of Philadelphia’s iconic Center City Macy’s store within the historic Wanamaker building, there was no real surprise.
Macy’s across the country have been recently shuttered due to post-Covid financial malaise, and another 66 signature department stores are set to close this year. The 1300 Market Street location, home to Macy’s since 2006, is the latest announced closure, and will be missed by all those who shopped and worked there.
More crucial, however, to Philadelphians raised with Wanamaker’s Christmas Light Show, was the fates of both the 120-year-old Wanamaker Organ and its August Gaul-sculpted, 2,500 bronze eagle. If you didn’t know the phrase “Meet me at the eagle,” you probably weren’t raised in Philadelphia.
So what will happen to the 120-year-old Wanamaker Organ and Wanamaker Eagle?
According to Bruce Bohri, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Historical Commission, Center City’s soon-closing Macy’s will retain its most famous assets.
“The Wanamaker Building’s Grand Court is one of East Market Street’s civic spaces, and one of just five interiors listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places,” Bohri told Metro. “This means that any changes to the Grand Court that require a building permit require approval from the Philadelphia Historical Commission. The eagle statue and the organ’s two-story organ pipe case are part of the Grand Court.”
A look back
The Wanamaker Organ and the Wanamaker Eagle were installed in 1300 Market’s Grand Court in 1911, after their display at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The Wanamaker Organ is the largest functioning pipe organ in the world.
Forty years after visionary retailer John Wanamaker had opened his first clothing store, he installed the organ as a showpiece of his new commercial palace’s seven-story Grand Court to add music and culture to the shopping experience.
The organ set Wanamaker’s apart from the city’s other well-known department stores. By the 1920s, the store hosted evening concerts that featured internationally renowned organists and attracted audiences of over 10,000 people.
In 1922, a radio station in the Wanamaker’s store engineered the first successful broadcast of an organ concert.
Though the annual holiday light show didn’t begin until the 1950s, Wanamaker’s made Christmas songs part of the organ’s repertoire from the beginning.
A holiday ad in 1949 declared “Christmas isn’t Christmas without a day at Wanamaker’s!” It enticed visitors with “a memorable Christmas pageant,” with Christmas music played on the “famous” Wanamaker organ, illuminated with candles and surrounded by tableaux.
Historical preservation
The National Park Service named the building a National Historical Landmark in 1978. The organ received special attention as a defining historical feature. In 1991, local enthusiasts founded the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ nonprofit to raise money for an extensive restoration of the organ and its continued upkeep as a public treasure.
In 2018, the Philadelphia Historical Commission recognized the significance of the organ when it included it in the features of the Grand Court, one of only five interiors protected by provisions of the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. This means that new owners of the building will have to seek approval from the Historical Commission to alter or demolish the organ.
Other local interiors on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places include the much marveled 30th Street Station, as well as the public spaces in the Family Court Building, City Council’s chambers, and Jacob Red’s Sons’ Store’s main sales floor.
According to Bohri, “the developer TF Cornerstone has expressed enthusiasm for the historic character of the building.”
Alba Martinez, Philadelphia’s Director of Commerce added that, “While this marks the end of an era for Philadelphia’s retail landscape, it also signals the beginning of a new chapter… one filled with economic opportunity in our evolving real estate market and the promise of revitalization for Market East and Center City as a whole.”
an Associate Professor of History at Villanova University, contributed to this report.
