Vintage Philadelphia Print - WANAMAKER'S Gentleman's Clothier 1881 - Rooster Head meets Top Hat!

Press ZOOM to see the big version. Related images and details in the thumbnail pics, as well.

Treasures from THE PHILADELPHIA / DELAWARE VALLEY COLLECTION at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

Print size 16 x 24, consciously and carefully formatted to work with a standard 16 x 24 frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

Wanamaker's! A huge part of my life and for those of millions of others, wasn't always at 13th & Market. It started out a few decades earlier at 6th & Market, near Independence Hall.

I went with my older brother Scott to Wanamaker's to buy tickets to the Quaker City Rock Festival, where the Santana Blues Band and the Chicago Transit Authority were the opening acts. Then we headed to the food counter to indulge in the utter decadence of two big crab cakes, which we ate cold while laughing at the kookoo wickedness of it all.

In the hands on part of The Grand Review studio, the workspace in the carriage house, there are four enormous work tables with big storage drawers on roller bearings which I bought as a much younger man from when Wanamaker's closed down. Hardwood, and last used in the bargain section of the lingerie department, they had originally been unpainted and used on the main floor. Probably made between 1900 to 1920, I think I paid $20 apiece for them... but then had to move them. Yikes!

John Travolta does crash into the Wanamaker's building in Blowout, a movie me and my girlfriend tried to get into the scene shot on South Street by driving my rusted out 69 Malibu convertible around the block about 20 times as the cameras rolled. On the cutting room floor... AGAIN!

I love this image for a number of reasons, not least of which is that we grew up on a little gentleman's farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania and yes, we had chickens. Very colorful Bantams, called bantys in our house. The consciously conceived stuffiness of some (not all!) of our neighbors who wore the 'landed gentry' horse style a little too tightly might have benefited from this bit of self parody...........................

ENJOY!

A few stats from the Wanamaker Building website...

-Wanamaker’s was the first department store in Philadelphia and one of the first in the country.

-The building sits on the site of an abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad station.

-The historic building was built between 1904-1911, replacing the famous “Grand Depot” in several stages.

-The new store, lavishly built in the Florentine style with granite walls by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham, had 12 floors (9 for retail), numerous galleries and two lower levels totaling nearly two-million square feet.

-The palatial emporium featured the former St. Louis World’s Fair pipe organ, at the time one of the world’s largest organs. The organ was installed in the store’s marble-clad central atrium known as the Grand Court. (see Organ notes below)

-Another item from the St. Louis Fair in the Grand Court is the large bronze eagle, which quickly became the symbol of the store and a favorite meeting place for shoppers.

-Dedicated by President William Taft (there is a footstone in Macy’s with the dedication information). on December 30, 1911.

-The Wanamaker’s flagship store, with its famous organ and eagle from the St. Louis World’s Fair, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978

-In 1992 a nonprofit group, the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, was founded to promote the preservation, restoration and presentation of the famous pipe organ.

-Macy’s, with a long tradition of parades and fireworks displays, has taken a prominent civic role in fostering historic Wanamaker traditions, especially the Wanamaker Organ , Holiday Pageant of Lights Christmas Show and The Dickens Village.

-Floors 6 – 12 were converted to office space in 1989-1990. Floors 4 and 5 were converted in 1997. Macy’s currently occupies floors 1-3.

The Wanamaker Organ:

The largest playable organ in the world.
Brought from the St. Louis World’s Fair on 13 train cars in August 1909.
Dedicated June 22, 1911.
The organ has been played daily since 1910, twice a day.
September 2008 with the cooperation of Amerimar Enterprises, Behringer Harvard & Macy’s for the 1st time in 50 years, the organ is 100% playable.

The Wanamaker Eagle:

The eagle was the centerpiece of the German display at the St. Louis World’s Fair.
It was stored along with the organ and while preparing to transport the organ it was decided that the eagle would add a decorative touch to Grand Court of the department store. Therefore it was purchased and transported along with the organ.


***NOTE*** The old image of the Wanamaker Building is for reference.

• Handmade item
• Materials: Art stock enhanced matte paper, archival ink
• Made to order
• Only ships within United States.

SHIPPING

All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

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A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.