The Wanamaker Organ: The Largest Playing Instrument on Earth

Inside the Wanamaker Building at 13th and Market — home to Wanamaker's and later Macy's, until the store closed in March 2025 — sits what is often called the largest fully functional pipe organ in the world. Built in 1904, it has 28,762 pipes — some as small as a pencil, others 32 feet long. For more than a century, free recitals filled the Grand Court six days a week, a tradition that paused on March 22, 2025, when the store closed. The organ stays in the Grand Court while the building is redeveloped, and for now it is heard only at occasional public concerts.