Big city gold: Philadelphia

September in many parts of the world means fall/autumn which, in turn, often means golden leaves. Jude’s also gone with gold for her Life in Colour challenge, so we’ll take a break from our Wyoming trip and concentrate on that. Arizona doesn’t do autumn in the same way as much of the country, but I think I can go archive diving and come up with some gold. Philadelphia does do gold as you can see from this magnificent organ, the largest operational pipe organ in the world, unexpectedly found in Macy’s Department store. Read more about its fascinating and lengthy history by clicking on the highlighted link below as well as listen to it being played, which happens twice a day every day of the week except Sunday and more often during the Christmas season.

In its present configuration, the Wanamaker Organ has 28,482 pipes in 461 ranks.[2] The organ console consists of six manuals with an array of stops and controls that command the organ. The organ’s String Division forms the largest single organ chamber in the world. The instrument features eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago.[2] The organ is famed for its orchestra-like sound, coming from pipes that are voiced softer than usual, allowing an unusually rich build-up because of the massing of pipe-tone families. The artistic obligation entailed by the creation of this instrument has always been honored, with two curators employed in its constant and scrupulous care. The organ, with its regular program of concerts and recitals, was maintained by Wanamaker’s throughout the chain’s history, even as the company’s financial fortunes waxed and waned. This level of dedication was maintained when corporate parentage shifted from the Wanamaker family to Carter-Hawley-Hale Stores to Woodward & Lothrop to Lord & Taylor to Macy’s. “Pipe Organs”