Macy's Opens in Former John Wanamaker Store

  

Old traditions return in a new Macy's store, opening up Wednesday across the street from Philadelphia City Hall, in the old John Wanamaker building that recently housed a Lord and Taylor department store.
 
When you want to meet someone while shopping ‘til you drop, taking in the sounds of the enormous pipe organ that has been thrilling everyone since 1911, or having a youngster gaze at the Christmas light show, the common refrain has been “meet me at the eagle.”

 

The 2,500-pound bronze statue -- the eagle -- remains poised in the Grand Court, and those other amenities will remain a cherished feature in the new-look Macy's, according to Wanamaker organ curator Curt Mangel:

 
“There's great pride of place in history here. Being that this is the largest functioning pipe organ in the world -- and probably the most famous -- I think Philadelphians would have torn down the building brick by brick if anyone was going to change the eagle, the organ, or the light show."

 

Jim Kenny, general manager of Macy's center city store, says the Wanamaker building and the Grand Court inside it are icons in Philadelphia -- so although the retail space has been refurbished, much of it will look familiar.

 

Kenny, who previously ran the Strawbridge's store at 8th and Market Streets, says they've been working around the clock for some ten weeks to prepare for the reopening:

 

"We brought a tremendous amount of people from Strawbridge's, retained quite a bit from Lord and Taylor, and brought a third group in from Macy's.  We have three different cultures that have combined to become a great team.  I think customers will enjoy shopping here because of that."

 

Retail analysts say Macy's has a successful brand that includes an affordable pricing system with a broad range of products. Kenny says they have more than 150 brands and designers which provide, in his words, "fashion and affordable luxury."

 

After the Thanksgiving Day parade, Kenny says, the light show will enchant a new generation of children:
 

“We intend to get it back to where it was in the heyday, when a lot of us – generations -- came down to see it. We had the Christmas tree and the dancing water.”
 
Kenny says they want to renovate that display over the next couple of years.

  

Mayor Street says center city needs this kind of anchor:

 

"I remember when Market East had the original Lit Brothers.  Still, there's no place like the old Wanamaker building for retail."