The history of the Wanamaker Organ begins in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson, who was the President of the United States at that time, signed the agreement whereby the land then known as The Louisiana Territory was sold by France and bought by the U.S.A.

Thomas Jefferson (1742-1826), Third President of the United States

The Louisiana Purchase, as it came to be known, consisted of 828,000 square miles (2,144,000 square kilometers or 529,920,000 acres) of the French claim to the Territory of Louisiana.  The U.S. paid 50 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth approximately 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total sum of $15 million, which was the equivalent of 4 cents per acre.  In today’s world, that amount of money could afford you a large mansion or even your own luxury yacht charter. Considering the amount of land that was included in the purchase, it was a great deal.  If that purchase were to happen today the inflation adjusted cost would be over $215 billion.  With that amount of money you could afford more that one luxury yacht charter.

The Louisiana Territory

The land purchased included:

• all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska;
• parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River;
• most of North Dakota;
• most of South Dakota;
• northeastern New Mexico;
• northern Texas;
• the regions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide;
• Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans; and
• small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The U.S. had originally wanted to purchase only the City of New Orleans and its adjacent lands, but when the French offered to sell the whole of The Louisiana Territory, the U.S. agreed to buy.  The City of New Orleans controlled the Mississippi River due to its location and was of importance for the shipping of agricultural goods to and from west of the Appalachian Mountains. Napoleon Bonaparte had gained The Louisiana Territory from Spain in 1800 under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, after it had been a Spanish colony since 1762. However, the treaty remained a secret and remained nominally under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France on 30th November, 1803, just three weeks before it acquisition by the U.S.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

The purchased area was explored in part by the members of The Corps of Discovery in order to determine if the land might be exploited for commerce.  The Corps was led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark and their expedition took place between May 1804 and September 1806.

Left: Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809); Right: William Clark (1770-1838)

Sacagawea (c. 1788-1812), a Lemhi Shoshone woman  who acted as interpreter and occasional guide during the Lewis & Clark Expedition

—ooOoo—

THE ST. LOUIS WORLD’S FAIR OF 1904

Meet me in St. Louis, Louis –  Played here on a Mira 18 ½ Inch Concert Grand Console Music Box

-oOo-

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904 to celebrate the centenary of The Louisiana Purchase of 1803.  The exposition was delayed from the planned opening in 1903 to allow for full-scale participation by more states and foreign countries.  The Fair opened on the 30th April, 1904, and closed on the 1st December, 1904.

The film Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), inspired by the Fair, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli
and starred Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Margorie Main et al 

Click here to watch the trailer of the film;
click here to watch The Trolley Song sequence; and
click here to hear the title song

The Fair was designed by George Kessler and was located at the present-day grounds of Forest Park and on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.  It consisted of over 1,500 buildings, which were connected by approximately 75 miles of roads and walkways, with exhibits from sixty-two countries and forty three of the forty fives States of the Union.

The World Fair at St. Louis of 1904   Left: The Government Building; Right: Souvenir Brochures

A number of the buildings at the Fair was given over to entertainment.  Festival Hall, designed by Cass Gilbert, was used for large-scale musical pageants and housed the largest pipe organ in the world at the time.  The organ was built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, which was the successor to the Murray M. Harris Organ Company, and was constructed especially for the Exposition of 1904.

Festival Hall and Basin The organ was housed in this building.

—ooOoo—

THE DESIGNER OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST PIPE ORGAN

The organ that was constructed especially for the 1904 World’s Fair at St. Louis and housed in Festival Hall was designed by the renowned organ architect, George Ashdown Ausdley, who was also the author of the two-volume work, The Art of Organ Building, which is still consulted today despite changes in fashion.

George Ashdown Ausdley (1838-1925)

Mr. Ausdley  was born in Elgin, Scotland where he was later apprenticed with the architects, A. & W. Reid.  He later moved to Liverpool where he eventually opened an architect’s office with his brother, William James Ausdley.  In 1884 their collaboration ended and William emigrated to the U.S.   As a result of his work on the New West  End Synagogue, Mr. Ausdley moved to London in the hope of receiving further commissions.

New West End Synagogue, West London An English Heritage Grade I Listed Building 

While here he built for himself a house with a music room complete with a pipe organ, which became much admired by the composer Saint-Saëns.  Unfortunately he failed to gain neither the recognition nor the commissions that he hoped for and in 1890 he moved to the U.S., where in 1892, he and his brother opened another architect’s office.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Click here to hear the finale of the Symphony No. 3 (The Organ Symphony) by Saint-Saëns

and here to hear the whole piece

William Ashdown Ausdley was renowned for his dogmatic approach to his work.  He always insisted on the use of quality materials in the building of his pipe organs.  In addition, he made an important distinction in pipe-organ tone from what is musical and what is mere musical noise.  Mr. Ausdley wrote numerous articles on the organ, and early in his career, he envisioned huge instruments with numerous divisions each under separate expression, in imitation of the symphony orchestra.   As a result of his standing in the field, The Murray M. Harris Organ Company/The Los Angeles Art Organ Company commissioned him to design the world’s largest pipe organ that it was building for the 1904 World’s Fair at St. Louis. 

The Los Angeles Art Organ Company originally published a 32-page booklet on the Grand Concert Organ it erected in Festival Hall at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair

—ooOoo—

THE BUILDERS OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST PIPE ORGAN

The construction of the the organ to be presented at the World’s Fair at St. Louis was undertaken by  The Father of Organ Building in the American West, Murray M. Harris.

Mr. Harris (1866-1922) apprenticed in organ building in Boston with George Hutchings where he learned to voice organ pipes, which I have discovered is one of the most difficult tasks in organ-building.

  Awaiting permission to reproduce this photograph from Australian Pipe Organs Pty. Ltd.

Click here and here to watch how an organ pipe is voiced 

In 1895, Mr. Harris began building organs at his own company in Los Angeles, The Murray M. Harris Organ Company.  In 1900, through the power of persuasion, Mr. Harris attracted various craftsmen, including the master organ building, William Boone Fleming, to his factory and began to incorporate the new electro-pneumatic developments into his organs.  The advantages of these new developments were that the organ pipes could now be placed at any distance from the console and that organs of virtually unlimited size were now possible.  The organ architect, George Ashdown Ausdley, was also employed by the company to provide designs.  The company built its most famous organ up until that time for the Stanford University Memorial Church, which is still functional today and was last restored in 1996.

Stanford University Memorial Church

Click here to hear Herbert Nanny play Variations on Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God

The most important organ that The Murray M. Harris Organ Company was commissioned to build was to be THE WORLD’S LARGEST PIPE ORGAN, which was to be installed at Festival Hall at the St. Louis World Fair of 1904.  However, its building brought grief to Mr. Harris.  Its construction was so lavish that its cost rose to approximately $105,000 (approximately 2.7 million dollars in today’s money), which was $40,000 over budget.  As a result of Mr. Harris’ overspending, poor business planning and ill-advised speculations, he was ousted from the company.

Following this, The Murray M. Harris Organ Company was reorganised as the Los Angeles Art Organ Company under the guiding hand of the new majority stockholder, Eben Smith.  This company was later to become The Electrolian Organ Company and was moved to Hoboken, N.J.  The plan was for Electrolian to acquire some of the market share of the residence-organ business from the Aeolian Company, the industry leader.  As a builder of extra-quality art organs, Electrolian never attracted significant business and, with Mr. Smith’s death, the venture was dissolved.

When completed, the organ had over 10,000 pipes and, to quote Mr. Harris, was positively The World’s Largest Pipe Organ.  

The World’s Largest Pipe Organ was designed to be an imitation of a full-size orchestra and with complete resources of full organ tone including mixtures.   In addition to its console, the organ was originally equipped with an automatic player that used punched rolls of paper.

The Fair opened to the public in late April 1904 before the organ was fully installed in Festival Hall.  It still was not finished in September when Felix-Alexandre Guilmant, one of the most famous organists of the day, presented forty recitals on the organ.

Felix-Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Click here to hear Symphony No 1 for Organ and Orchestra in D minor op 42 by Felix Alexandre Guilmant with Edgar Krapp, organ

When the Fair came to an end, the organ was intended for permanent installation at the Kansas City Convention Hall.  The original console had a prominent K C on its music rack.  This venture failed and brought about the bankruptcy The Los Angeles Art Organ Company as a result.  There was a plan to exhibit the organ at Coney Island in New York City, but nothing came of this proposed venture.

With no plan for the organ’s installation elsewhere, it was removed from Festival Hall and put into storage at the Handlan Warehouse in St. Louis where it was to remain until 1909.

—ooOoo—

JOHN WANAMAKER

John Wanamaker (1838-1922) ……. through the years

From Left to Right: photographs taken in 1862, 1893, 1896, 1912 & 1922

John Wanamaker was born in 1838 just to the south of Philadelphia in a rural area in what is now the area of Grays Ferry.  His father was a bricklayer from New Jersey while his mother was related to a wealthy family from Europe.  Little seems to be known of his early life, but he obviously received a good religious education.  His secular education was known to be limited and consisted of no more than two years of grammar school.  Seemingly, he was self-read and self-taught and had a good understanding of mathematics.  His favourite book was Robinson Crusoe, which together with The Bible, were probably the only books that his family owned.  He was also known to enjoy Nature Walks in the woods.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1660-1721 (Left)

Mr. Wanamaker’s first position of authority was that of Secretary of the Philadelphia Young Men’s Christian Association.  He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and founded the Bethany Sunday School in 1858 and supported temperance and the Philadelphia Blue Laws.  He was a Republican and sought political office, but each of his efforts resulted in failure.  However, he did serve in the Cabinet of President Benjamin Harrison as U.S. Postmaster General from 1889 to 1893 and was responsible for:

• introducing Commemorative Stamps;
• introducing the parcel post system;
• beginning the First Penny Saving Bank;
• planning free rural postal service; and
• persuading the U.S. Congress to ban the sale of lottery tickets by post.

His time as Postmaster General was not without its problems and these included:

• the firing of approximately 30,000 postal workers who had previously profited through the Spoils System, which is where after winning an election, a political party gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory and as an incentive to keep working for the party;
• banning a book by Leo Tolstoy from the U.S. mail on the grounds of obscenity;
• for ordering changes in the uniforms of postmen and then being accused of having the new uniforms produced by one company in Baltimore to which he was said to have financial ties; and
• for predicting that the U.S. mail would continue to rely on stagecoaches and horseback delivery for the coming century, thereby failing to appreciate the impact of the motorised transport.

Mr. Wanamaker was a Free Mason and was made a Mason-At-Sight in 1898.  This meant that he did not belong to any one Lodge, but was elected to Friendship Lodge No. 400 in Jenkintown, P.A. and was elected Senior Warden and later served as its Worshipful Master.  He was later appointed to serve the Grand Lodge as Chairman of the Library Committee by the Grand Master and was largely responsible for the growth of the collection at the inception of the Library. Using his own personal wealth, he gathered together books, letters, and artwork regarding the history and moral teachings of Freemasonry.

He also donated a copy of William Joseph Williams‘ portrait of George Washington in Masonic regalia, painted in 1794 at the request of Alexandria (Virginia) Lodge No. 22. By the end of his tenure as Chairman, the Library had over 17,000 volumes and over 7,400 works of art and Masonic relics.

Left: George Washington in Masonic Regalia by William Joseph Williams (Right, self portrait)

Mr. Wanamaker was evidently outspoken and not fearful of expressing his views.  During the First World War, he proposed that the U.S.A. purchase Belgium from the Germans for a huge sum of money, as an alternative to continuing the horrors of war.  Obviously this suggestion was rejected.

—ooOoo—

Let those who follow me continue to build with the plumb of honor, the level of truth, and the square of integrity, education, courtesy and mutuality.

In 1861, Mr. Wanamaker began what would prove to be his greatest success. that of a merchant.  Together with his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown, they opened a clothing store named Oak Hall.

Mr. Wanamaker ran the emporium based on the principle, One price and goods returnable, which allowed it to do well.  This success led to the opening of his second store on Chestnut Street in the centre of Philadelphia.  He changed the name of the store to John Wanamaker & Company following the death of his partner in 1868.

The Wanamaker Mansion, 2032 Walnut Street, Philadelphia

Then (Left) and Now (Right) where only the Facade remains

In 1875, he purchased the abandoned Pennsylvania Railway depot and after converting it into a store, The Wanamaker Grand Depot, moved his operations there.

The Wanamaker Grand Depot profited from being open prior to the American Centennial Exposition of 1876 held in Philadelphia and resembled one of the many pavilions at the exposition since it was built with a Moorish-styled facade.  In 1877 the interior of Wanamaker’s was refurbished and expanded to include men’s and women’s clothing as well as dry goods.  The store was the first modern day Department Store in Philadelphia and had a circular counter at the centre of the building with concentric circles radiated around it with 129 counters of goods.

Wanamaker Grand Depot

Mr. Wanamaker being a Christian allowed the Grand Depot before being opened as a store to be used as a meeting place for the evangelist Dwight L. Moody and provided a number of ushers from the store personnel.

Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

Once the store was opened, he did not advertise on Sundays and promises made in his advertisements were not only factual but kept.  At first he wrote his own copy, but later hired the world’s first full-time copywriter John Emory Powers.  During Mr. Powers’ time of employment at the store, its revenues doubled.  Although Mr. Wanamaker did not invent the fixed price system, he popularized it into what became the industry standard and did create the money-back guarantee that is now standard business practice.

Mr. Wanamaker introduced others features which were soon copied the world over.  In 1874, he began copyrighting his advertisements and was responsible for the introduction of the price tag.  In 1878, he became the first to install electrical lighting into a Department Store in 1878, the telephone in 1879, pneumatic tubes to transport payments and receipts in 1880 and lifts in 1889.

Pneumatic Tubes

In 1910, Mr. Wanamaker began the process of replacing the Grand Depot with a new and huge department store.  He set about this by building the new store on the site of the Depot in stages.  This approach allowed the Depot to remain open and for business to continue as usual.  Daniel H. Burnham was hired as architect and the new store was built in Florentine style with granite walls and was of twelve floors, nine of which were for retail sales and was 247 feet in height.  In addition there were a number of galleries and two basement levels and covered almost two million square feet.

The Wanamaker Store

The John Wanamaker Department Store was the most palatial building specifically built for retail use in the country.  Its marble vestibules opened into spacious and high colonnaded interiors with a huge marble ladened atrium, referred to as the Grand Court.

The building was opened in 1911 with an address by President William H. Taft, making it the only Department Store to be dedicated by a sitting president.

President William H. Taft (1857-1930)

In order to stay ahead of his competition and to offer customers variety and innovation, Mr. Wanamaker employed buyers for the store to travel to Europe each year to search out the latest fashions, which eventually led to the company maintaining offices in both London and Paris.

The store was the first to introduce such innovations as the bargain basement and the Sale or White Sale, as it was originally called, in January for linens (which were only produced in white at that time) when sales were normally low.  Other themed sales were later introduced, as a way of maintaining low prices low with a high sales volume.

In addition, the basement housed a Post Office, a Lost and Found Office, a Shoe Repair and the Dairy Restaurant.  Later the Basement would become a parking garage.

The store also had the possibility of presenting high end goods to potential clients in special salons.  At one time the store sold pianos, home organs and once offered a monorail around the Toy Department on the eighth floor for children to enjoy.

The Monorail

This photograph is reproduced from The View Through the Windshield and appears here with permission of Mr. Sherlock

Getting Ready for the Christmas Season, 1926

In addition, a model house was open for viewing in the Furniture Department and a physician and nurses were available for the staff on the tenth floor.  Mr. Wanamaker gave his employees free medical care, education, recreational facilities, pensions and profit-sharing plans before such benefits were considered standard.

-oOo-

The Wanamaker Store was built with two auditoria: Greek Hall and Egyptian Hall on the third floor.  Both Halls were originally installed with Austin Pipe Organs with the Greek Hall organ being decorated with the same style marquetry as The Hall paneling.    This organ was removed by Mr. Wanamaker’s son, Rodman, and installed at Deer Meadows (the erstwhile Philadelphia’s Baptist Home).

Greek Hall

Details of Greek Hall

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution offered The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ a gift of a Wurlitzer Theatre Organ, which was installed in Greek Hall by the Smithsonian and Brantley A. Duddy and is played at concerts.

Click here to read more about The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Wurlitzer

The Wurlitzer Theatre Organ present in Greek Hall

The Egyptian Hall Austin Pipe Organ had four manuals and was removed in 1938.  Today part of Egyptian Hall has been converted to Administrative Offices and the home of the Dickens Village, which is open to the public during the Christmas season.  Above the faux ceiling installed in Egyptian Hall, a many of the original decorative columns and other features may still be seen.

The Remains of Egyptian Hall

-oOo-

Until 1995, the ninth floor of the store was where the Crystal Tea Room Restaurant was found.  Seemingly the Tea Room was one of the largest dining areas in the world and was said to be able to accommodate 1,400 people at one time.  It served breakfast, luncheon and afternoon tea and at Thanksgiving, seventy-five turkeys could be roasted at the same time.  Its staff was provided with lockers and baths.  Alcohol was not served in the Tea Room until after the store was sold, since Mr. Wanamaker promoted temperance.   Following its closure, the Tea Room was leased to the Marriott Corporation for use as a ballroom and banqueting hall, as part of the Philadelphia Convention Center operations.

The Crystal Tea Room Restaurant

There was also a balcony café, The Terrace on the Court, on the third floor that faced the Grand Court.  The café remained open until 2008 when the current owner of the store, Macy’s, closed it.

-oOo-

A wireless antenna was installed on the roof of the store, which regularly transmitted news to the Wanamaker’s wireless station in New York City.  The news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 reached New York and the rest of the country via this route.

The Philadelphia Store operated a radio station, WOO, from 1922 until 1928 (which will be discussed later).

—ooOoo—

The preeminence of the Department Store did not come just from its size – it  not only influenced how shoppers dressed and decorated their homes but also how they spent their spare time – in other words, they influenced the culture of the society.  The displays both in the store and in the windows were organised to both entice, pamper and influence the customers’ wishes and wants and also to show how they might live if they worked hard, saved their money and spent it in the Store!

Going to a large Department Store became an experience …… an event ….. especially at particular times of the year.  Department Stores learned how to attract customers with low prices, useful and attractive products, as well as restaurants and tea rooms to revive the weary shopper, and while doing so, they also learned how to entertain them.

As a result, the Department Store became community institutions andWanamaker’s in Philadelphia hit upon a unique way to set itself apart from other stores in the City.

—ooOoo—

The centre of the The Wanamaker Department Store has a huge central marble ladened atrium, known as the Grand Court, that rises up to the building’s decorative ceiling and is surrounded by numerous colonnaded galleries.

The Grand Court

The World’s Largest Pipe Organ that had been installed at the World’s Fair of 1904 at St. Louis had been moved to storage once the fair came to an end.  Despite efforts to find a permanent home for the organ, nothing came of them and it was put into storage in a warehouse in St. Louis where it was to remain until 1909, when Mr. Wanamaker offered to purchase it with the intention of installing in the seven-storey Grand Court of his rebuilt Department Store at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia.

Once the transaction was finalised, the organ was moved by train to Philadelphia.  It took thirteen freight cars to move it to its new home and two years for installation.  The organ was first played in the Wanamaker Department Store on 22nd June, 1911 at the exact moment when King George V was crowned.

Coronation of George V, 22nd June, 1911

Click here to hear the organ being played in 2012

Although at the time of installation, the organ had more than 10,000 pipes, it was judged inadequate to fill the seven-story Grand Court.  As a result, Mr. Wanamaker opened a private organ factory in the store attic, which was charged with the task of enlarging the organ.

The original factory supervisor, William Boone Fleming, was hired to oversee the additions to the organ along with some forty employees.  The first project undertaken involved the addition of 8,000 pipes, which took place between 1911 and 1917.  Later, between 1924 and 1930, a second project was undertaken where an additional 10,000 pipes were added, which brought the number of pipes associated with the organ to 28,482 with a total weight of 287 tons.

-oOo-

Mr. Wanamaker was obviously proud of the organ and sponsored many historic after-business-hours concerts where world-renown organists were invited to play.  The first such concert featured Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) and the Philadelphia Orchestra with organist Charles M. Courboin (1884-1973) and was given on 27th March, 1919.  Some 15,000 people were in attendance for the concert.  Space had been provided for the audience by removal of the counters, fixtures and goods from the Grand Court.

Left: Charles M. Courboin; Right: Leopold Stokowski

Click here to hear Charles M. Courboin play Chorale No. 3, Part 1 by Cesar Franck (1822-1890)

and here to hear Part 2

—ooOoo—

After Hours Concerts were given at periodic intervals until 1928 with the death of Rodman, Mr. Wanamaker’s son and did not begin again until Dr. Keith Chapman was appointed organist-in-residence.

—ooOoo—

Today, two forty-five minutes concerts are given each day by the organist-in-residence, Peter Richard Conte, except for Sundays.  During these concerts, customers continue to shop, but there is always a number that stop and listen to the glorious music that resonates about the Grand Court (but more of these reflections later).

—ooOoo—

THE NEW YORK STORE

Following Mr. Wanamaker’s success in retail in Philadelphia, he began to branch out to other cities.  In 1896, he opened his first store in New York City by purchasing The Iron Palace, which was one of the first Big Stores.  This store had been built in 1862 by A.T. Stewart at Broadway, 4th Avenue & 9th and 10th Streets and was his new store when he moved his business north from The Marble Palace store at 280 Broadway at Chambers Street.  Mr. Wanamaker had admired Mr. Stewart, who died in 1876, and considered his personal attention to the details to the business to be one of his finest qualities.

Once the Department Store, A.T. Stewart & Co., that became Wanamaker’s

Mr. Wanamaker added to his New York Store by having a twelve storey Annex built just across from the Store at 756-770 Broadway.  The Annex was constructed by D.H. Burham & Co. and took three years to complete and was twice the height of the Store.  Both buildings were connected by a closed bridge over 9th Street, known as The Bridge of Progress, and by a tunnel beneath it.   The Store now became exclusively one for Women’s needs while the Annex catered to men and for household commodities.  For customer convenience, there was a Subway Station in the basement.

Wanamaker’s Store & Annex

Left: The Store with Annex behind; Right: Store & Annex separated by The Bridge of Progress

These photographs are reproduced from Daytonian in Manhattan and appear here with permission

The Annex was built with an auditorium and an organ was installed there.  Details of the organ’s history may be found by clicking here, which is where the following photograph may also be found.  Permission awaiting to reproduce this photograph.

Louis Vierne at the Wanamaker Auditorium Organ in New York City, in February 1927 The console of the organ was acquired by Mr. Rubin Frels, an organ builder in Texas, once the store closed

(Take a minute and read about Louis Vierne’s tragic death – click here)

Click here to hear Louis Vierne play

Although other department stores  in the area had moved to other locations on the Ladies’ Mile by the 1950s, The Wanamaker Company decided not to join them and 1954 saw both the Store and the Annex close.  The Company’s remaining goods were sold to S. Klein on the Square (the company’s flagship store on Union Square, New York) and were sold at a discount to the public.

In 1955, The Wanamaker Company sold the Store and plans were drawn up to demolish it.  Before this could happen, fire broke out that destroyed the building leaving only its iron frame.  The Bridge of Progress that had been built between the Store and the Annex across 9th Street was also destroyed.  In 1960, a white residential building was built on the spot, which was named Stewart House.  The Annex survives today as offices and with its ground floor as a K-Mart.

Click here and here to watch Newsreel segments of the fire

—ooOoo—

MEET ME AT THE EAGLE

Part of the Console of the Wanamaker Organ

The organ constructed especially for the 1904 World’s Fair at St. Louis and later installed at Wanamaker’s Department Store in Philadelphia was not the only object acquired by Mr. Wanamaker originally installed at the Fair.

The German sculptor August Gaul (1869-1922) had been commissioned to produce a statue of a bronze eagle to be placed on display at the Fair.  The statue of the eagle weighed 2,500 pounds and was made of bronze with 1,600 individual hand-made feathers on the bird’s head and another 3,400 over the  rest of the statue.  It was produced in Frankfurt and transported to St. Louis in the finished state.  Once the Fair ended, Mr. Wanamaker purchased it and had it brought to his Department Store where it had it placed in the Grand Court once the floor had been strengthened with additional iron girders in order to support it.

August Gaul

The Eagle

The Eagle soon became a meeting point for both customers and visitors to the store and soon Meet me at the Eagle became a catchphrase used by everyone.

Meet me at the Eagle