‘A keepsake for your memories’: Organ concert marks the end of Macy’s era at the Wanamaker Building

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Hundreds packed the Center City Macy’s on Saturday to listen to the Wanamaker Organ in a daylong concert celebrating the instrument as the department store marks its final weekend.

A number of renowned organists, including John Wanamaker Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte, played richly layered music. Conte and other musicians organized the daylong recital, “Make a Joyful Noise,” with performances every hour from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The resounding notes washed over the crowd seated in a vestibule among discount signs, piles of rugs and dismantled shopping displays. Many couldn’t hold back their tears.

Carol Jackson decided to join in the celebrations even though she is currently receiving weekly cancer treatment. She started crying during one of the recitals Saturday morning, and made a quick trip to Reading Terminal Market to compose herself.  She later returned to listen to the concert and to take a photo with the iconic “Eagle” statue.

Jackson, 51, was 3 or 4 years old when she first heard the instrument. Her grandparents would bring her to Wanamaker’s at Christmas time to shop, ride the train and see the light show.

“This whole little area is like a keepsake of your memories, and it’s going to be greatly missed,” she said. “I just was talking to some staff members that knew my grandmom and stuff. It was just so emotional.”

Stephanie Mokan also relived her memories as she sat by herself, waiting for the music to begin.

The Juniata Park resident was 17 when she bought her first designer accessory at the store: “a Ralph Lauren polo sport orange orange pocketbook.”

“I used to run for lawyers,” she said. “So every time I would go to City Hall, I would always walk through Macy’s, and I would always look at everything, and I kept saying, ‘I’m going to save up and save up and save up.’ And I’ll remember the day that I walked in here and I got that pocketbook, I thought I was the coolest person ever, and I bought it with my own money.”

For Mokan and others who flocked to hear the organ Saturday, the Christmas show was a highlight of the building and organ’s storied past.

Pete Steffa, 75, said he was there as a 5- or 6-year-old for one of Wanamaker’s first Christmas light shows in 1956.

Ten years ago, he became a member of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, a group dedicated to the instrument’s restoration and preservation.

It was “bittersweet,” Steffa said, to listen to the concert Saturday; but he was also looking forward to the 5 p.m. finale that he said would “peel the paint off the walls.”

“I don’t know when I’ll hear it live again,” he said. “I have CDs and DVDs of it, but that’s not quite the same as being in this space to hear it.”

Built in 1904 for the St. Louis World Fair, The Wanamaker Organ is a National Historic Landmark. Considered the largest fully-functioning organ in the world, it’s composed of more than 28,000 pipes, which are stored in various parts of the building.

Supporters of the instrument are hopeful that it will play on in the building’s next chapter.

Ray Biswanger, executive director of Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, said the organization has already spoken with building owner TF Cornerstone, which is looking to acquire the property. The company said in a statement in January that it is “committed to the preservation of the organ and ensuring it remains a cherished part of the space.”

“They value the beauty of music in the city, and know how important it is in urban life,” Biswanger said. “And so we’ve had two pleasant meetings with them, and we’ve exchanged goals and are working toward the very best outcome for all concerned.”

Biswanger said a joint goal is to ensure the organ, whose sound, he said, is comparable to “three symphony orchestras,” is still played publicly.

Whatever the future holds, Biswanger said, the turnout Saturday was a testament to the millions of dollars and decades of time that ensured the organ’s sonorous melodies were heard for decades at two daily concerts.

“We have a whole team, a restoration team. We’ve invested millions of dollars. Macy’s has invested millions of dollars in the organ,” he said. “The community is enjoying that now, and it’s just wonderful to see the dividends that that investment is making and the place it has in the hearts of the people here, and the common shared experience of so many to enjoy the grandeur of this pipe organ in Philadelphia’s living room.”

On Saturday, fans traveled from beyond the Greater Philadelphia region to revisit memories and make new ones.

John Libertine came down from the Boston area. He first heard the organ in 2008 and has been bringing his family to Philadelphia nearly every summer since then for Wanamaker Organ day — even in 2015, the year that the concert fell just six days after his wife gave birth to their son.

“My wife graciously allowed me to bring the family down here,” he said. “It was probably not a comfortable day for her, but she tolerated it and forgave me sometime later. And so he was here in my arms in 2015 mostly with his eyes closed for his first organ concert.”

Libertine said no matter what the future holds for the instrument, the concert Saturday was significant for him and many other devotees.

“This will be the last day we hear the instrument in the space that it was designed for,” he said. “Whatever changes come the way for the building, everybody hopes the organ will be a huge part of it, but it will always be different than it is today.”

Steffa said although Macy’s nearly two-decade tenure in the space is ending, the iconic department store played a key role in the organ’s continued significance.

“Macy’s had been absolutely, absolutely wonderful in their regard and their stewardship of it and paying the salaries that they paid, and, you know, putting money into it,” he said. “We’ll be ever forever, forever grateful for what they did and have done.”

For Steffa, he hopes the organ plays on.

“This is a national treasure. This is a world treasure, and it’s got to be preserved and continued, and continue to be played for the public,” he said.