A Very Large Organ

Over the weekend I was listening to MPR Public Radio and was able to hear the Wanamaker Organ Hour which is a live broadcast from the old John Wanamaker Department store. I have no idea where I got the love of organ music, but I do enjoy it's sound, not just playing it!!! It was a treat to hear it. Wanamaker's use to be my store of choice to shop in. And what a gorgeous store, but the special thing other than it's architecture is the world's largest pipe organ. This past Christmas they even put on a light show to the music.



Built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the Wanamaker Organ was designed by renowned organ architect George Ashdown Audsley, author of The Art of Organ-Building. This heroic instrument had more than 10,000 pipes, and its construction was on such a lavish scale that costs soared to $105,000, bankrupting the builder. In 1909, Philadelphia merchant-prince John Wanamaker bought the instrument for his new Philadelphia emporium.



Thirteen freight cars were required to ship the entire organ from St. Louis, and installation took two years. The Grand Organ was first heard in the Store's seven-story atrium on June 22, 1911, at the exact moment when England's King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Later that year, it was prominently featured when President William Howard Taft dedicated the Store.Despite its immense size, the tone was judged inadequate to fill the huge court. Wanamaker's opened a private pipe-organ factory in the Store attic, employing up to 40 full-time employees to enlarge the instrument. William Boone Fleming, the original factory supervisor, was hired to direct the work. Lavish construction and elegant workmanship made the Wanamaker Organ both a tonal wonder and a monument to superb craftsmanship. The largest pipe is made of flawless Oregon sugar-pine three inches thick and more than 32 feet long—so large that a Shetland Pony was once posed inside for publicity photos. The smallest pipe is a quarter-inch in length. More than 8,000 pipes were added to the Organ between 1911 and 1917, and from 1924 to 1930 an additional 10,000 pipes were installed, bringing the total number of pipes today to 28,500. The Wanamaker Grand Organ has been thrilling Philadelphia shoppers and visitors every business day since 1911. Eighty years later an organization of the Friends Society was formed to support the preservation and musical mission of this irreplaceable American treasure. I have heard it in person several times, and if you are ever in Philadelphia, you really should try to stop by and hear it's beautiful music.