John Wanamaker
Wanamaker in July 1915
35th United States Postmaster General
In office
March 5, 1889 – March 4, 1893
PresidentBenjamin Harrison
Preceded byDonald M. Dickinson
Succeeded byWilson S. Bissell
Personal details
Born(1838-07-11)July 11, 1838
Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedDecember 12, 1922(1922-12-12) (aged 84)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseMary Erringer Brown
Children6, including Rodman and Minnie
Signature
Wanamaker, c.1890

John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838 – December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing".[1] He served as United States Postmaster General in the Benjamin Harrison administration from 1889 to 1893.

Early life and education

Wanamaker was born in the Grays Ferry section of South Philadelphia on July 11, 1838.[2] to John Nelson Wanamaker, a brickmaker and native of Kingwood, New Jersey, and Elizabeth Deshong Kochersperger, daughter of a farmer and innkeeper in Gray's Ferry.

His mother's ancestors came from Rittershoffen in Alsace, France, and from Canton of Bern in Switzerland.[3]

Career

At the age of 19, Wanamaker was hired by the Philadelphia YMCA, and served as the first corresponding secretary in the YMCA national organization.[4]

Department store business

An illustration of Philadelphia City Hall and John Wanamaker's "Grand Depot" at 13th and Market streets in Philadelphia
The Grand Court at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia
The Wanamaker building at 13th and Market Streets in November 2013

In 1861, Wanamaker opened his first store in partnership with his brother in-law Nathan Brown. The store, called "Oak Hall", was located at 6th and Market streets in Philadelphia, adjacent to the site of the residence and offices of George Washington during his presidency.

Oak Hall grew substantially based on Wanamaker's then-revolutionary principle: "One price and goods returnable".

In 1869, he opened his second store at 818 Chestnut Street, and, capitalizing on his own name due to the untimely death of his brother-in-law and growing reputation, renamed the company John Wanamaker & Co. In 1875, he purchased an abandoned railroad depot and converted it into a large store, called John Wanamaker & Co. "The Grand Depot". Wanamaker's is considered the first department store in Philadelphia.

Wanamaker Building

The Wanamaker Building is a large, 12-story granite store in Philadelphia, designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and completed in 1910. It was dedicated by U.S. President William Howard Taft on December 30, 1911. The store stands on the site of "The Grand Depot", encompassing an entire block at the corner of 13th and Market streets across from Philadelphia City Hall. The new store, The Wanamaker Building, which still stands today, became a Philadelphia institution. The entire building was initially devoted to the department store and company offices.

The building has remained an integral part of Philadelphia culture. In 2018, the upper office tower was marketed as the Wanamaker Office Building.

Grand Court

The Wanamaker Building's most notable feature is its seven-story, marble-clad central atrium, known as the "Grand Court". The Grand Court quickly became a Philadelphia favorite, highlighted by the Wanamaker Eagle and the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ.

The Grand Court has been featured in several movies, including Nasty Habits in 1977, Mannequin in 1987, Blow Out in 1981, and 12 Monkeys in 1995.

Wanamaker Organ

The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ was designed by George Ashdown Audsley and built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The instrument had 10,059 pipes, and cost $105,000 to construct, equal to $3,420,000 today. Wanamaker bought the organ in 1909 and had it transported from St. Louis aboard 13 freight cars. The organ's installation in Philadelphia took two years. It was played for the first time on June 22, 1911, to coincide with England's King George V's coronation.

More than 8,000 pipes were added to the organ between 1911 and 1917. By 1930, an additional 10,000 pipes were installed, bringing the total number of pipes today to 28,750. The instrument is of the American Symphonic school of design, intended to combine traditional organ resources with the tone colors and beauty of the symphony orchestra. Once a year, usually in June, "Wanamaker Organ Day" is held. This free festival lasts most of the day.[5]

Wanamaker Eagle

John Wanamaker purchased a bronze bird sculpture by August Gaul, following the sculpture's exhibition in America in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The 2,500-pound sculpture is a focal point of the store's Grand Court. The sculpture is placed above a steel beam because of its weight. Known as the "Wanamaker Eagle", it became a famous meeting place and "Meet me at the Eagle" became a popular Philadelphia catchphrase.[6]

Christmas Light Show

In November 1955, the store tapped lighting designer, Frederick Yost, to create seasonal displays. Yost designed the "Holiday Light Show" for the Grand Court, creating a more contemporary display than previous years. Since then the Holiday Light Show has become a beloved annual holiday tradition for generations of Philadelphians. In the 21st century, the light show has been modernized, but has retained the look and feel of the original show. Since 2006 the Macy's Dickens Village has been located on the store's third floor, continuing a cherished Philadelphia Christmas tradition that had begun at Strawbridge's in 1985.[5]

Expansion

Wanamaker expanded to New York City in 1896, continuing a mercantile business originally started by Alexander Turney Stewart. He expanded internationally with the Wanamaker European import houses in London and Paris.

Wanamaker was an innovator, creative in his work, a merchandising genius, and proponent of the power of advertising, though modest and with an enduring reputation for honesty. Although he did not invent the fixed price system, he is credited for the creation of the price tag;[7] he popularized it as the industry standard. He also started the "money-back guarantee" that is now standard business practice.

He provided his employees with free medical care, education, recreational facilities, pensions and profit-sharing plans before such benefits were considered standard. Labor activists, however, knew him as a fierce opponent of unionization. During an 1887 organizing drive by the Knights of Labor, he fired the first twelve union members who were discovered by his detectives.[8]

Wanamaker was the first retailer to place a half-page newspaper ad (1874) and the first full-page ad (1879).[9] He initially wrote his own ad copy, but later hired the world's first full-time copywriter John Emory Powers. During Powers's tenure, Wanamaker's revenues doubled from $4 million to $8 million.[10] Wanamaker supposedly said "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."

Postmaster General

In 1889, Wanamaker began the First Penny Savings Bank in order to encourage thrift. The same year, he was appointed United States Postmaster General by President Benjamin Harrison; he was accused by the newspapers of the day of buying the post.[11] Wanamaker was credited by his friends with introducing the first commemorative stamp and many efficiencies to the Postal Service. He was the first to make plans for free rural postal service in the United States, although the plan was not implemented until 1896.[12]

In 1890, Wanamaker persuaded Congress to pass an act prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets through the mail, and then he aggressively pursued violators.[13] Those actions effectively ended all state lotteries in the US until they reappeared in 1964, partly as an effort to undermine organized crime.

Wanamaker's tenure at the Post Office was riddled with controversy. He fired some 30,000 postal workers under the then common "spoils system" during his four-year term, as it was customary for a change in political administrations to lead to new appointments for their own supporters. The changeover of so many employees caused severe confusion, inefficiency, and a run-in with civil-service crusader Theodore Roosevelt, a fellow Republican.

In 1890, Wanamaker commissioned a series of stamps that were derided in the national media as the poorest quality stamps ever issued, both for printing quality and materials. When his department store ordered advance copies of the newly translated novel The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, the deadline was missed, and only the regular discount was offered by the publisher. He retaliated by banning the book from the US Mail on grounds of obscenity.

He was ridiculed for this action by many major U.S. newspapers. In 1891, he ordered changes in the uniforms of letter carriers, and was accused of arranging for all the uniforms to be ordered from a single firm in Baltimore, to which he was believed to have financial ties.[14] In 1893 he made a public prediction at the Chicago World's Fair that U.S. mail would still rely on stagecoach and horseback delivery for a century to come, failing to anticipate the effects of trains, the automobile, and related truck vehicles.[15]

During World War I, Wanamaker publicly proposed that the United States buy Belgium from Germany for the sum of one-hundred billion dollars, as an alternative to the continuing carnage of the war.[16]

Wanamaker was a presidential elector in the 1888 and 1920 presidential elections.[17]

Wanamaker was the last surviving member of President Benjamin Harrison's cabinet.

Philanthropy

Wanamaker was known for his philanthropy to programs to aid the poor in Philadelphia. He co-founded Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen, in 1878.[18] The Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission has since expanded to provide more services and still supports the homeless population of Philadelphia.[19]

He was an avid collector of art and antiquities. He made several donations to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.[20]

Among the donations was a collection of bronze reproductions of artifacts uncovered from the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, known as the Wanamaker Bronzes, which Wanamaker had commissioned by the Chiurazzi Foundry in Naples for the museum.[21][22]

Personal life

In 1860, Wanamaker married Mary Erringer Brown.[23]

They had six children, two of whom died in childhood:

In 1899, Wanamaker's son, Thomas, who specialized in store financial matters, purchased The North American, a Philadelphia-based newspaper. He irritated his father by publishing regular columns to radical intellectuals, including Henry George, Jr., socialist Henry John Nelson,[25] who later became Emma Goldman's lawyer, and socialist Caroline H. Pemberton. The younger Wanamaker also began publishing a Sunday edition, which offended his father's sense of keeping the Sabbath holy.

His younger son Rodman, a Princeton University graduate, lived in France early in his career. He is credited with creating a demand for French luxury goods in Philadelphia and the United States that persists to this day. Rodman was credited with the artistic quality that gave the Wanamaker stores their cachet. He was also a patron of fine music, organizing spectacular organ and orchestra concerts in the Wanamaker Philadelphia and New York City stores under music director Alexander Russell.

Death

The Wanamaker family tomb in the churchyard of the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia

Wanamaker died on December 12, 1922.[26] His funeral was on December 14, 1922, with a service at the Bethany Presbyterian Church.[27] He was interred in the Wanamaker family tomb in the churchyard of the Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.

At his death, his estate was estimated to be US$100 million ($1,748,310,139 today), divided equally among his three living children and granddaughters, Mary "Minnie" Wanamaker Warburton (Mrs. Barclay Warburton), Patricia "Paddy" W. Estelle, and Elizabeth Wanamaker McLeod, who all received substantial stock, real estate and cash instruments. Second son Rodman was made sole inheritor of the store businesses.

Rodman Wanamaker died in 1928, leaving the businesses with a documented worth of $36.7 million ($611,908,549 today) in a trust. Rodman is credited with founding the Professional Golfers' Association of America and the Millrose Games.

The senior Wanamaker's first son, Thomas B. Wanamaker, died in Paris in 1908.[28]

Legacy

A statue reproduction of Seated Hermes commissioned by Wanamaker on display in the Penn Museum

His country estate, Lindenhurst mansion in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, was located on York Road below Washington Lane at (40°05′07″N 75°07′52″W / 40.0853°N 75.1311°W / 40.0853; -75.1311).[29] The original mansion was designed by architect E. A. Sargent of New York City; President Harrison visited Wanamaker at the Lindenhurst mansion.[30]

A neoclassic mansion was constructed when the original Victorian Lindenhurst burned in 1907, destroying much of Wanamaker's art collection. A railroad station, Chelten Hills located below Jenkintown, and no longer in existence, was constructed on the property in addition to his vast mansion. The campus of the present-day Salus University is now based on part of the former estate.[31]

A family trust owned the Wanamaker's store chain, run by a trustee system set up by Rodman Wanamaker's will. In 1978, the business was sold to Carter Hawley Hale, Inc. The 15-store chain was sold to Woodward & Lothrop in 1986, and the downtown store was renamed as Lord & Taylor. Woodies declared bankruptcy in 1994, and with it went the Wanamaker stores, which were sold to May Department Stores Company on June 21, 1995. In August 2006 the flagship Philadelphia store was converted from a Lord & Taylor to a Macy's.

  • Bronze busts honoring Wanamaker and other industry magnates stand between the Chicago River and the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, Illinois.
  • A popular saying illustrating how difficult it was to quantify the response to advertising is attributed to Wanamaker: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."[32]
  • Beginning in 1908, Wanamaker financed Anna Jarvis's campaign to have a national Mother's Day holiday officially recognized. On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day, which also later became an international holiday. A dedicated Pennsylvania historic marker honoring Jarvis and Wanamaker is located at Philadelphia City Hall, across the street from Wanamaker's store, where the earliest Mother's Day ceremonies were held.
  • Wanamaker's fame was considerable around the world in his heyday. In the original play Pygmalion (1912) by George Bernard Shaw, Alfred Doolittle is left a legacy by an American philanthropist millionaire named "Ezra Wanafeller", combining Wanamaker's name with John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
  • Wanamaker owned homes in Philadelphia, Cape May Point and Bay Head in New Jersey, New York City, Florida, London, Paris, and Biarritz. He had a townhouse at 2032 Walnut Street in Philadelphia, which was designed similar to an English manor house and held a Welte Philharmonic Organ.[33] He died in this residence. The facade of this building is still extant. During the 1980 construction of the new Wanamaker House high rise on the adjacent property on Walnut Street, the facade of the original Wanamaker house was closely monitored to ensure its preservation. This monitoring was performed by the Engineering firm, Boucher and James, Inc. Dale Leonard, professional land surveyor. Thomas Edison, a close friend, was an honorary pallbearer at his funeral (there were 150 of them).
  • Wanamaker was instrumental in the foundation of the Williamson College of the Trades (originally, 'Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades') in Elwyn, PA. It was named for his friend and mentor, Isaiah Vansant Williamson. Williamson died in 1889, shortly after he founded the school. Wanamaker was the chairman of the school's first board of trustees, who realized Williamson's vision and planning for the school. The board held a competition for the design of the original campus buildings and selected famed Philadelphia architect, Frank Furness (Furness, Evans & Company). Wanamaker has been memorialized in many ways at the school, most conspicuously in The John Wanamaker Free School of Artisans, which encompasses the instructional trade workshops and is considered the heart of the college. A dormitory, foundations, and groups are also named in his honor. Wanamaker privately wrote a biography of Williamson titled, Life of Isaiah V. Williamson, which was published posthumously in 1928.[34]
  • Wanamaker was a Pennsylvania Mason. The John Wanamaker Masonic Humanitarian Medal was created by resolution of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania at the December Quarterly Communication of 1993. The medal, also called "The Wanamaker Medal" is to be awarded to a person (male or female) who, being a non-Mason, supports the ideals and philosophy of the Masonic Fraternity. At the discretion of the R. W. Grand Master, the medal is awarded to one who personifies the high ideals of John Wanamaker–a public spirited citizen, a lover of all people, and devoted to doing good. The medal has been presented sparingly to maintain the great prestige associated with an award created by resolution of the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge.[35]
  • Wanamaker was instrumental in the vision and planning of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tucker, Jeffrey (April 1, 2011) What's a Job Good For?, Mises Institute
  2. ↑ Maxin, Halley C. "Wanamaker, John". Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania. pabook.libraries.psu.edu. Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  3. ↑ Contemporary American Biography: Biographical Sketches of Representative Men of the Day : Representatives of Modern Thought and Progress, of the Pulpit, the Press, the Bench and Bar, of Legislation, Invention and the Great Industrial Interests of the Country, Volume 1, Part 2. Atlantic Publishing and Engraving Company. 1895.
  4. ↑ "YMCA Hall of Fame". pridenet.springfield.edu. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  5. 1 2 "Facts and Figures about the Wanamaker Organ". www.wanamakerorgan.com. Friends of the Wanamaker Organ. 2017. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Eagle". Visit Philly.
  7. ↑ "Who Made America? - Innovators - John Wanamaker". PBS.
  8. ↑ Goldberg, Judith Lazarus. Strikes, Organizing, and Change: The Knights of Labor in Philadelphia 1869-1890 (PhD, NY University 1985), pp. 342-3
  9. ↑ Shrock, Joel (June 30, 2004). The Gilded Age. ABC-CLIO. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-313-06221-6. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  10. ↑ Fox, Stephen R. (1984). The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising & Its Creators. University of Illinois Press. pp. 25–28. ISBN 978-0-252-06659-7. Retrieved November 23, 2012.
  11. ↑ Fuller, Wayne E. (1964). RFD: The Changing Face of Rural America. pg. 20
  12. ↑ "History of the United States Postal Service 1775-1993". Archived from the original on March 9, 2008.
  13. ↑ Ershkowitz, Herbert (1998). John Wanamaker: Philadelphia Merchant. Da Capo Press, p.30 ISBN 1-58097-004-4
  14. ↑ "John's Miserable Stamps", The New York Times, August 10, 1890, p.14; "Wanamaker's Latest Crime", Boston Globe, August 1, 1890; Political Career of John Wanamaker" Justice (Wilmington, DE), February 19, 1898 p. 1; "A Little 'Job' in Clothes," The New York Times, July 5, 1891, p. 2
  15. ↑ Kaku, Michio (2011). Physics of the Future. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-53080-4.
  16. ↑ "Repeats Suggestion That We Buy Belgium," The New York Times, June 24, 1915, p. 4
  17. ↑ "Index to Politicians: Waltrip to Warburton". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  18. ↑ Cnaan, Ram A.; Wineburg, Robert J.; Boddie, Stephanie C. (1999). The Newer Deal: Social Work and Religion in Partnership (First ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-231-11624-4. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Sunday Breakfast". Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  20. ↑ Gleeson, Molly (October 23, 2012). "Conserving Egyptian Mummies: Mummies, Mannequins and Wanamaker's". Artifact Lab. Penn Museum.
  21. ↑ "Statue, Reproduction". Penn Museum. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  22. ↑ S. Chiurazzi & Fils (1904). S. Chiurazzi & Fils Naples Italy Bronze Foundry. Reproductions of the Bronzes Found at Pompei and Herculaneaum and at Present in the National Museum in Naples. The Collection of Bronzes Made Upon the Order of John Wanamaker of Philadelphia for the Archaeology Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.
  23. ↑ "Mrs. J. Wanamaker Dies In 81st Year; Merchant's Wife Succumbs to Pneumonia at Atlantic City After Long Illness. Children at Her Bedside. Sister of Husband's First Partner Lived a Retired Life, with Interests Centred in Home and Family". The New York Times. August 21, 1920. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  24. ↑ "Obituary: Mrs. Barclay H. Warburton Is Dead at 85 - A Leader in Welfare Work and Politics". The New York Times. November 18, 1954. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  25. ↑ "Henry John Nelson - Notes from the Margins". margins.fair-use.org. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011.
  26. ↑ "Death Overtakes John Wanamaker. Had Suffered From A Heavy Cold". The New York Times. December 12, 1922. Retrieved May 27, 2011. The world famous merchant and former postmaster general passed away at his town house., 2023 Walnut street. He had been confined there since early in ...
  27. ↑ "Wanamaker Buried With High Tributes. Mayors Hylan And Moore And Other Officials Attend Philadelphia Services. Thousands At The Church. Honors Paid As Cortege Passes. Stores And Schools Suspend. Flowers From Employees". The New York Times. December 15, 1922. Retrieved November 6, 2023. John Wanamaker was buried this afternoon after services in Bethany Presbyterian Church, Twenty-second and Bainbridge streets, attended by a throng of prominent men and women whose presence showed the honor in which he was held as a merchant, philanthropist and citizen.
  28. ↑ "Thomas B. Wanamaker dead" (PDF). The New York Times. March 3, 1908. Retrieved August 21, 2010. Son of ex-Postmaster General passes away in Paris hotel
  29. ↑ "Lindenhurst". Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
  30. ↑ "At the Old Log College – The Cradle of Presbyterianism in America". The New York Times. September 6, 1889. p. 1.
  31. ↑ "Cheltenham Township".
  32. ↑ "Quote Details: John Wanamaker: Half the money I... - The Quotations Page". The Quotations Page.
  33. ↑ Liste der Philharmonie-Orgeln von M. Welte & Söhne und M. Welte & Sons
  34. ↑ Wanamaker, John (1928). Life of Isaiah V. Williamson. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott Company. pp. Chapter 8 – via wikisource.
  35. ↑ "The Wanamaker Medal". PA Masons. 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

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