Famed Wanamaker Organ will play in Pa. despite building closure

Published On: July 28, 2025

The Associated Press, by Mary Claire Dale

AP/PHILADELPHIA When Macy’s closed its store in the city’s iconic Wanamaker Building this spring, one of the most well-known organs in the world, which is located in one of Philadelphia’s favorite public areas, was in danger of going silent.

However, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the cutting-edge opera star who was hired last year to manage Opera Philadelphia, is spearheading an initiative to restore the Wanamaker Organ, a treasure recognized as a National Historic Landmark, to the public’s enjoyment. The building’s seven-story marble atrium is framed by a towering wall of gold-leaf pipes, which conceal more than 28,000 wood and metal pipes.

With $1 million in charity funding, Costanzo is planning a number of public performances this fall, including theater, drag, ballet, and opera, before the building’s metamorphosis into a retail and residential center starts restorations the following year. Perhaps not all of them, but the first event, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 7, will feature the Wanamaker Organ.

Costanzo told The Associated Press in an on-site interview Thursday night that John Wanamaker placed the largest pipe organ in the world in the Grand Court because he intended it to be the meeting point of the arts and business.

He described this area as operatic. I therefore believed it was the ideal umbrella to include all of these various colleagues and every arts group I could.

The organ was created for the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. In 1909, Wanamaker, a prosperous businessman and civic leader, had it relocated to his new emporium next to City Hall. He then employed a group of forty pipe makers to expand it so that the sound filled the large room. Ten years later, 15,000 people packed the great hall and mezzanines to hear renowned conductor Leopold Anthony Stokowski perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Costanzo claimed that when the product is removed, the acoustics are comparable to those of the great cathedrals.

Since there isn’t really anything in there, he said, this will be the best way to hear the organ in the space’s history because it is in perfect cathedral acoustic condition for the first time.

The new owner of the building intends to keep integrating art and culture into their plans, which include commercial and residential space above and retail on the lower floors. The organ presents both special obstacles and opportunities.

According to Jon McMillan, a senior vice president of TF Cornerstone, a development business based in New York, “you have this organ music going on in the grand atrium, but in the meantime you have other uses on these upper floors looking into that space, so you have to figure out how to make that work for everybody.”

In a statement released on Friday, local civic organizations stated their intention to gather money in order to revive the city’s most cherished yearly event—a holiday light show that brought generations of families to the store.

Costanzo, who still performs all over the world, thinks that by introducing the arts to public spaces like the Wanamaker Building, he can increase interest in them. And he’s hoping that will help people connect with each other in turn.

According to Costanzo, the feelings of Philadelphia are so strongly ingrained in this area. When they visit Wanamaker, I want them to see something they have never seen before.