In December 2014, The Philadelphia Daily News was given a guided tour into the belly of the world’s largest operational musical instrument, an enormous pipe organ that lives in the center of the Macy’s department store at 13th and Market streets. Known as the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, the instrument has a long history within the landmark site, which housed the Wanamaker’s department store long before Macy’s moved in.
The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ at Macy’s is a 7-story-high contraption bigger than most people’s houses, even rich people’s. The vast maze of 26,677 pipes and baffles and bellows and wires and wooden stairways lies hidden behind what many of us have always thought was the Wanamaker Organ.
In November 2015, Macy’s put out an informational video about the fascinating history of this grand pipe organ.
