Wanamaker's Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store

We moved to Philadelphia from the Midwest. Exploring the city was exciting and most weekends found us walking and exploring the historical sites, museums, and department stores.

Entering John Wanamaker's atrium court stunned us. We were used to one or two story malls. Our families did not shop at Detroit's flagship Hudson's store. Entering Wanamaker's one looked up to floors of open side galleries to the massive organ, and looking about noted the marble floors and the bronze eagle that seemed to guard the space. We heard about the legendary Crystal Tea Room and lunched there.

We learned about 'meet me at the eagle' and the noontime organ concerts, the holiday displays, and that they had the best women's room in the city with couches and chairs in a lounge and some stalls that locked and had their own sink. I soon discovered where the sale racks were and frequented them for bargains.

Ad in Bicentennial Booklet; from my personal collection

During our years in Philly we watched Lit Brothers and Gimbel's close. I loved to shop at Strawbridge & Clothier and Wanamaker's and am glad they closed after we left to return to the Midwest. Shortly after our return, Detroit's iconic department store Hudson's closed and became Macy's.

I never forgot those downtown stores.

My husband had heard a little about John Wanamaker's involvement with the Sunday School movement. I knew the eagle statue and organ were from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase World's Fair. Otherwise, I knew little about the man behind the store.

Wanamaker's Temple by Nicole C. Kirk was a revelation. I was fascinated to learn how the store I loved came to be built. President Taft personally attended the grand opening. It was a mecca of art and music and culture. Maestro Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra and John Philip Sousa had performed in the Grand Court. Art installations appeared throughout the store.

The book is about far more than one man and a retail store. Wanamaker was a relentless force in a movement that drove American religious institutions and birthed numerous organizations.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, civic and faith leaders, primarily white Protestants, were concerned about the growing urban immigrant population, who often lived in poverty and in neighborhoods afflicted by gang violence. These men wanted to shape a moral Christian society. The movement grew and expanded from addressing educational concerns and temperance to creating the Salvation Army and YMCA. They believed that architecture and the arts were elevating civic forces and that good taste was a part of the Christian armor of God. They believed that by addressing the practical needs of the poor and the immigrant, along with their spiritual and civic growth, they could form better citizens. The movement was a blend, being both progressive and evangelical.

The amoral greed of business and the consumerism of ready-made goods at this time meant business and Christianity seemed to be at war with each other. I graduated from Temple University and knew it's founder Russell Conwell preached "Acres of Diamonds" but I did not understand his message connected Godliness with the pursuit and accumulation of wealth--The Prosperity Gospel is still around today. Wanamaker was pressed by the revivalist Dwight L.Moody to leave business to save his soul, but Wanamaker was determined he could blend his faith and his business.

John Wanamaker, born on the wrong side of the tracks and educated at a mission Sunday School, had worked his way from the bottom to become a successful Philadelphia clothier. While building his retail business, Wanamaker was also building a Sunday School in his hometown of Gray's Ferry, using advertising tactics learned in business. It expanded to over 6,000 students requiring him to build a huge Gothic church that accommodated 1500. He started a bank to encourage savings and life skills coaching to teach "middle-class values." He also was active in the establishment of the YMCA.

Wanamaker had a vision of a store that would inspire awe. He embraced his store 'family' and created educational and recreational programs, even summer camps along the Jersey Shore.

John Wanamaker Sr. was an abolitionist who employed freemen in his brickyard. His son employed African Americans in his store, but as elevator operators and other behind the scene jobs, never as sales clerks. He organized separate social groups, as well, and they were excluded from his summer camp at the Jersey shore and store 'family' publicity photographs.

Kirk kept my interest throughout the book, her multilayered approach bringing an understanding of one man and his philosophy in the context of his times. It knitted together many aspects of American culture and provided me with a better understanding of society 100 years ago.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wanamaker's Temple as biography and history.

Wanamaker's Temple: The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store
by Nicole C. Kirk
NYU Press
Pub Date 23 Oct 2018
Hardcover $35.00 (USD)
ISBN 9781479835935

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In the 1960s textile designer Tammis Keefe created a series of souvenir handkerchiefs,. The Philadelphia themed handkerchief designs included Meet Me At The Eagle for John Wanamaker's department store. Here are some color versions from my personal collection.

Below is a nylon scarf with the same design.

Other designs in the series include the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Declaration of Independence, the Betsey Ross House, and Rittenhouse Square. I have all but the Ross house in my collection.