The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ the largest operational pipe organ

 

The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the largest operational[1] pipe organ in the world, located within a spacious 7-story court in a Macy's department store. It is played twice a day, Monday through Saturday, and much more often during the Christmas season. The organ is also featured at several concerts held throughout the year, including the Philadelphia Boys Choir, often with a small brass ensemble, string ensemble, or even the Philadelphia Orchestra.

 

The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, the world's largest organ, is being restored in Macy's department store in Philadelphia. There will be a series of performances to mark the restoration.

 

 

In its present configuration, the Wanamaker Organ has 28,482 pipes in 462 ranks. The console is composed of six manuals with an array of stops and controls, making it the largest operational pipe organ in the world. The organ's String Division forms the largest single organ chamber in the world, boasting eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built by the W. W. Kimball Company of Chicago.[2] The organ is famed for its orchestral-like sound, coming from pipes that are voiced much softer than usual, allowing an unusually rich build-up because of the multitude of pipes. The artistic obligation entailed by the creation of this instrument has always been honored, with two curators employed in its constant and scrupulous care. The organ, with its regular program of concerts and recitals, was maintained by Wanamaker's throughout the chain's history, even as the company's finances deteriorated. This level of dedication was maintained when corporate parentage shifted from the Wanamaker family to Carter-Hawley-Hale Stores to Woodward & Lothrop to May Department Stores Company and recently to Federated Department Stores.

 

 

 

The Wanamaker Organ was originally built by the Los Angeles Art Organ company, successors to the Murray M. Harris Organ Co., for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It was designed to be the largest organ in the world, an imitation of a full size orchestra. In addition to a keyboard console, the organ was originally equipped with an automatic player that used punched rolls of paper, according to the Los Angeles Times of 1904.[3] It was designed, at Murray Harris' request, by renowned organ theorist and architect George Ashdown Audsley. It ran into construction delays that led to Harris being thrown out of the project, which was reorganized into the Los Angeles Art Organ company, who finished it at the cost of $105,000, $40,000 over budget. The Fair began (in late April, 1904) before the organ was fully installed in its temporary home, Festival Hall. It still was not finished in September of that year, when Alexandre Guilmant, one of the most famous organists of the day, gave several very well-attended recitals on the organ. Despite this, the organ and the exposition were business disasters for the Art Organ company, which went bankrupt after the Fair closed.

The organ was placed in storage for several years until, in 1909, the organ was bought by John Wanamaker for his new department store at 13th and Market Streets in Center City, Philadelphia. It took thirteen freight cars to move it to its new home, and two years for installation. It was first played on June 6, 1911, at the exact moment when British King George V was crowned. It was also featured later that year when U.S. President William Howard Taft dedicated the store.

Despite its immense size (more than 10,000 pipes), it was judged inadequate to fill the seven-story Grand Court in which it was located, so Wanamaker's opened a private organ factory in the store attic, which was charged with enlarging the organ. The first project to enlarge the organ resulted in 8,000 pipes being added between 1911 and 1917.

Wanamaker's sponsored many historic concerts on the Wanamaker Organ. The first, in 1919, featured Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra with organist Charles M. Courboin.[2] Every sales counter and fixture was removed for the free after-hours event, which attracted an audience of 15,000 from across the United States. Subsequently more of these "Musicians' Assemblies" were held, as were private recitals. For these events Wanamaker's opened a Concert Bureau and brought to America French master organists Marcel Dupré and Louis Vierne, Nadia Boulanger, Marco Enrico Bossi, Alfred Hollins, and several others. During his first recital on the organ, Dupré was so impressed with the instrument that he was inspired to improvise a musical depiction of the life of Jesus Christ. This was later published as his Symphonie-Passion.

The organ's console has 6 manuals and hundreds of stops

In 1924, a new project to enlarge the organ began. Marcel Dupré and Charles Courboin were asked by Rodman Wanamaker, John Wanamaker's son, to "Work together to draw up a plan for the instrument. Use everything you have ever dreamed about." They were told there was no limit to the budget. This project resulted in, among other things, the famous String Division, which occupies the largest organ chamber ever constructed, 67 feet long, 26 feet deep, and 16 feet high. During this project, the organ's current console was constructed, with six manuals and several hundred controls. By 1930, when work on expanding the organ finally stopped, the organ had 28,482 pipes, and, if Rodman Wanamaker had not died in 1928, the organ would probably be even bigger.[4]

Plans were made for, among others, a Stentor division, a large division of high-pressure diapasons and reeds. It was to be installed on the fifth floor, above the String Division, and would be playable from the sixth manual. However, it was never realised, and the sixth manual is now used to play all the floating divisions (Echo, Orchestral, and String), the percussion instruments and the major and minor chimes. Had the Stentor division been installed, the organ probably would have needed a seventh manual. [5]

Following the sale to May in 1995, the Wanamaker's name was removed from the store in favor of Hecht's, but the organ and its concerts were retained. May funded a complete restoration of the organ in 1996, as part of the store's conversion into a Lord & Taylor. Following May's acquisition by Federated Department Stores in 2005, it was announced that the store would be converted into a Macy's, under the management of Federated's Macy's East division, but that the organ and its concerts would remain as a major fixture in the renovated store.