World's largest functioning musical instrument: Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia

A trip to Wanamakers at Christmas (including eating in the top-floor restaurant and listening to scheduled organ concerts) was a treasured fixture of my childhood in the late 50s and early 60s. If I remember correctly, there was a monorail-like tram that ran around the periphery of the toy department too. Christmas lights festooned the facade of the organ.

I thought this would be about the Luray Cavern’s Great Stalacpipe Organ.

“The Great Stalacpipe Organ is an electrically actuated lithophone located in Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA. Covering 3.5 acres of the cavern, it is considered the world's largest instrument by Guinness World Records.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stalacpipe_Organ

A great place to visit btw

It looks like it has a 64' pipe labeled "Gravissima". I know only how pipe organs work mechanically, not the terminology (Google translate thought Gravissima was Italian—translated to "Very Serious" in English, ha ha).

Those low frequencies though are the draw for me.

The lowest frequency I have come across in pop music might be the backing organ from the song "Prologue" on ELO's album Time. I had the vinyl in the day… One wonders: even with RIAA bass compensation, I suspect it might have been close to jumping the needle out of the groove.

This is not the largest in the world but it is enormous, and is also amazing for having been built by a 15-year old to answer the question: "When I was 14 I asked my piano teacher how long a bass a string would need to be if it had no copper on it at all".

I love this follow-up quote: "I think because I was so young I absolutely knew it was totally possible to do, I was fully determined and without consulting any professionals I had no barrier stopping me."

https://www.alexanderpiano.nz/page/the-alexander-piano

There's also something quintessentially New Zealand about the whole story - making it in a mate's garage, and then moving the project to a farm tractor shed when it got too big and the inaugural concert that looks like it's still in the same shed, the photo of the tractor moving it for the outdoor concert...

The Wanamaker building is fascinating. Around Christmas time, they'd turn the 3rd floor into a sort of model Dickensian village to walk through. There's a small chapel with original stained glass by Tiffany, and a wood-paneled ballroom of sorts with ornate ceilings and electric lamps by the original Edison company that are still operating. There's a large room in Egyptian-revival architecture used for fashion shows, and a chandelier-lined ornate grand ballroom with glass atrium that can seat 1,000 people. There also used to be a complete model house you could walk through, and a functional monorail to bring kids around the toy department floor.

It was sad to read that the store has closed (though they still managed to do some seasonal events with the organ).

I've been going here almost every year my entire life, most recently this past December when I got to hear the Oregon play in a concert.

In December they also have a huge light show featuring the organ and a very cool Charles Dickens walk-through village.

If you liked this post... enjoy: Pipe Organ (An instrument the size of a building) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeB3JnKp8To

There is a nice co-working space in the Wanamaker building if you need an excuse to visit:

https://www.mindspace.me/philadelphia/wanamaker/

Percentage was shifted to the Carter Hawley Hale and The May Department Stores, as well as Lord & Taylor.

John Wanamaker purchases the organ to move it to 13th and Market, which took a series of freight cars to transport.

Afraid not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stalacpipe_Organ

Can't see it described as the world's biggest instrument on the wiki page - only the biggest pipe organ. Is it really bigger than the biggest carillon?

oldest instrument https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjXZzB5bUAo

> The display pipes of the Wanamaker Organ. These pipes are decorative only. The pipes that sound are behind and above them.

:(

Still an impressive object.

And I naively assumed the one at the Royal Albert Hall in London is pretty big...

Calling an organ "an instrument" is like calling an entire orchestra "an instrument". You kind of hit the "what does instrument even mean" wall very, very hard: an organ this size is a control surface for 1000+ instruments.

I've sang into a canyon, did a duet with myself, big canyon. Just saying.