March 21, 2025
Kristin Hunt/PhillyVoice
Abandoned mannequins struck an eerie pose in the Macy's in Center City during its final week. The department store is leaving the historic Wanamaker Building Sunday. It first opened in 2006.
The Macy's in the historic Wanamaker Building in Center City once held gleaming counters of perfume, racks of evening wear and heaping shelves of home goods. But as the store cleared house in its final week, the grand shopping center began to resemble a horror movie.
The department store will shutter Sunday after 19 years in the landmark building, located on the corner of 13th and Market streets. Macy's massive closing sales had wiped out much of the inventory by Thursday. Heaps of area rugs, a few pieces of office furniture and scattered racks of women's clothing dotted corners of the cavernous space. The jewelry counter on the ground floor that still held merchandise required a customer sign-up sheet.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceArea rugs, marked down to 75% off, were one of the few items in stock on the ground floor.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceCustomers had cleared out most of the Macy's makeup and perfume counters.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceThe only Macy's counter with ample business was a jewelry display. Employees managed the demand with a sign-up sheet.
Scattered crowds still gathered in the afternoon to hear the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ play its final concerts for the foreseeable future. The 28,500-pipe instrument, the largest functional organ in the world, has long pumped out melodies at noon and 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. While being on the city's register of historic places affords it some protections, the future of the organ remains a bit murky. Spectators took up spaces by the second-floor railing and bronze Eagle statue, another protected historical object, on the ground level to record video of its music.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceAudiences gathered around the second-floor railing to capture video of the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ on their phones.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceSome spectators listened to the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ concert by the Eagle statue. Both objects are listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.
But the tunes took on a sinister quality set against the empty halls and blinking lights. The Wanamaker Building was a magnificent monument to consumerism when it opened in 1911, the only department store dedicated by a sitting U.S. president. (A bronze star in the ground floor's "grand court" marks the spot where William H. Taft did the honors.) The gilded Corinthian columns, waterleaf moldings and white marble walls, preserved to this day, lent it a grandeur normally reserved for temples. Devoid of furnishings and customers, however, they resemble a ruin – or deleted scene from the zombie mall classic "Dawn of the Dead."
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceA pair of shoes and a hanger sat abandoned on the first-floor escalator.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceSome holiday decor, like this Christmas tree, laid discarded on the second floor of Macy's.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceSome halls in the Macy's on Market Street were clear of any items, except for closing sale signs tacked to the wall.
The many disrobed and disfigured mannequins didn't help. Macy's offered some for sale, pricing partial forms with bases at $75 and ones with wheels at $85. Others merely haunted the space, forgotten on a table or spying from a shelf. At least one was posed in a suggestive stance, seemingly by a merry prankster.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceMacy's offered some mannequins, whole or in pieces, for sale in its final week.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceCustomers could buy mannequin legs or torsos, but some were only interested in posing the pieces suggestively – as evidenced by the figure to the left.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceMannequins not available for purchase laid discarded around the department store.
Kristin Hunt/for PhillyVoiceThis haunting baby mannequin, left on an otherwise empty Macy's shelf, was not for sale.
Shoppers still have the weekend to cruise the floors for a desk chair or mannequin torso – or catch the organ's all-day concert Saturday – but the Macy's they once knew is already dead. And its skeleton has some truly cursed vibes.
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