Kirk - Wanamakers Temple. The business of religion in an iconic department store

Nicole C. Kirk

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

www.nyupress.org

2018 by New York University

All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kirk, Nicole C., author.

Title: Wanamakers temple : the business of religion in an iconic department store / Nicole C. Kirk.

Description: New York : NYU Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018011910 | ISBN 9781479835935 (cl : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH : John Wanamaker (Firm)History. | Department storesPennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaHistory. | Social responsibility of businessPennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaHistory.

Classification: LCC HF5465.U64 W365 2018 | DDC 381/.1410974811dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011910

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also available as an ebook

To Kirk Brauer and the other JW

1.1. Bethany Church postcard

1.2. Moody-Sankey Philadelphia revival interior

1.3. Wanamaker Grand Depot floor plan

1.4. The Two Wanamakers

1.5. Another Stuffed Prophet

2.1. Wanamaker Grand Depot exterior

2.2. Wanamaker Building postcard

3.1. Wanamaker store school classroom

3.2. Back cover, The Wanamaker Primer on Abraham Lincoln

3.3. John Wanamaker with cadets in the store art gallery

3.4. Wanamaker Cadet military band with John Philip Sousa

4.1. French Revolution store exhibit

4.2. Rendezvous art gallery

4.3. Wanamaker art gallery

4.4. Munkcsys Christ on Golgotha in the Grand Court

5.1. Wanamaker Grand Depot transept decorated for Christmas

5.2. Wanamaker Christmas Cathedral

5.3. The Grand Court at Christmas guidebook

5.4. Munkcsys Christ before Pilate Easter crowd

5.5. Easter display guide

5.6. Founders birthday commemoration in the Grand Court, 1930

A cold rain poured on the crowds making their way to the old railroad freight depot at Thirteenth and Market Streets on the edge of Philadelphia. It was Sunday, November 21, 1875, and revivalists Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey were finally in Philadelphia for the first in a series of 250 revival meetings after years of petitions to visit the city by religious and civic leaders.

Tickets were issued, and extra policemen circulated to help control the throng. Despite the rain, thousands squeezed into the improvised freight depot tabernacle to hear the words and music of Moody and Sankey. The Philadelphia Times noted that it looked as though the whole city had turned out before breakfast on the muddy, dreary morning to attend the revival.

Ample press coverage breathlessly detailed the religious spectacle as thousands congregated nightly in what was dubbed the Tabernacle Depot by the media.

The improvised tabernacle was meticulously organized. Inside, attendees found a well-lit space with thousands of chairs in neat lines. Nearly three hundred blue-badged ushers, many of them employees of a local department store, rushed to seat the demanding crowd. Once all the seats were occupied, the latecomers had to stand at the back and along the sides of the room.

Revival organizers cast the gatherings as disciplined and orderly affairs and asked audience members to sit perfectly still. The instruction served a twofold purpose: to help make it possible to hear the speaker throughout the cavernous space, and to demonstrate the respectability and decency of the revival proceedings.

On the second night, Moody stressed that his revival meetings kept to a tight schedule by dramatically declaring that the doors will be closed and locked, if the house is only half full, and the other half outside. Emphasizing the seriousness of his declaration, he announced, If the President of the United States himself should come,... he wouldnt get in. In fact, President Grant would attend the revival a month later, along with his entire cabinet and the U.S. Supreme Court after touring the yet unfinished Centennial Exhibition grounds and buildings.

On the fourth night of the revival, the hordes continued to prove greater than the space could accommodate. One disappointed man exclaimed, Its as hard to get into heaven as it is to get into this depot, and another worried about the structures safety if a fire broke out. Every night following Moodys preaching and Sankeys heart-stirring singing, Moodys friend John Wanamaker, the owner of Philadelphias leading mens wear store and provider of the revivals ushers, led postrevival meetings at a nearby Methodist church. Wanamaker also owned the freight depot sanctuary. A little more than a year after the last night of the revival, Wanamaker transformed the temporary tabernacle into one of the first American department stores.

Eight months after the revival, Moody wrote to his old friend, urging him to sell his successful stores. I cannot get you out of my mind for the last few days and nights. I must set down & write you & make one more effort to get you out of your business.

Moody and Wanamakers friendship had developed out of a shared past. They both came from working-class backgrounds and discovered evangelical Christianity as store clerks. They both served as paid secretaries for the Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) and worked with the U.S. Christian Commission during the Civil War. Both men started Sunday schools in major American cities that became the megachurches of their day. And they both feared the influence of the developing urban environment on young Christian men and women. However, their perspectives on the moral nature of business were at odds.

Wanamaker and Moody took different directions in their ministries. Moody became a revivalist and educator while Wanamaker became a successful retailer and church layman. Although Wanamakers success funded and supported Moodys evangelismfor instance, Wanamaker purchased the property for Moodys seminary in Northfields, MassachusettsMoody remained unenthusiastic about the rapid expansion of Wanamakers dry goods store. In Moodys mind, business was not equal to ministry and business could corrupta paradoxical stance, given Moodys reliance on business techniques, advertising, and businessmen for the success of his revivals. He believed that a high commitment to Christian service demonstrated faithfulness.

Wanamaker disagreed. He neither abandoned his store nor left ministry behind. Instead, he built one of the largest retailing businesses in the world and helped to develop the American retail shopping experience, creating one of the early American department stores. The freedom to browse without purchase, one price for each product clearly labeled for all customers, generous return policies, and annual white salesthese retailing conventions that he helped to implement continue to define American retail to this day. A stint as the U.S. postmaster general stimulated an interest in political office, only to be thwarted by a series of defeats. His introduction of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) expanded mail service to rural customers and supported his growing catalog business and that of other mail-order stores. Seeing the opportunity for ready-to-wear clothing, Wanamaker embraced changes in production, later developing his own line of products under the Wanamaker store label. He fashioned his stores as regional enterprises and special destinations, drawing customers from across the eastern United States with promises of more than shopping; his stores offered a full cultural education, including art galleries and concert music, under one roof. His store advertisements offered shopping advice and homespun wisdom in addition to marketing goods and educating consumers. Wanamakers massive stores in Philadelphia and later New York City and his active mail-order business, along with his enormous buying and production power, put him in a league with the other American merchant princes: A. T. Stewart, Marshall Field, Edward Filene, Aaron Montgomery Ward, and Julius Rosenwald. Wanamaker helped to create American retail. But business was not his sole occupation.