On February 9th, 2025, the Philadelphia Eagles smothered Patrick Mahomes, former Eagles coach Andy Reid and the rest of the Kansas City Chefs in Super Bowl LIX, giving the team its second Super Bowl championship. Since I was unable to attend the parade after the "all gas, no brakes" victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, showing up for 2025 event was a top priority. Not long after the confetti and beer cans were cleaned up, I came to learn that the downtown Macy's with its world famous Wannamaker Grand Court Organ was going to close for the indefinite future triggering another trip downtown to catch one of the "final" live recitals. The result is a collection of photos documenting these two unique things that make Philly special.
After the mess that was the 2008 Phillies World Series Parade, SEPTA and PATCO pretty much decided that they just weren't going to try for future parades with plans that limited service to a subset of stations with large parking lots. As a result my plan had been to taken Amtrak and and just walk to the parade route from 30th St station and I had purchased refundable tickets for the Wednesday and Thursday after the Super Bowl as soon as the Birds won the NFC Championship. Unfortunately the Eagles broke precedent and scheduled the parade for Friday due to cold weather on Thursday. This required me to fall back on Plan B, drive up and grab a parking spot at the Woodcreast Station Park M Ride at 5am for a parade that wouldn't get downtown until about noon.
PATCO's parade plan involved dropping all passengers at 9th/10th and Locust to use the rest of the line as yard space and so that they could lock down the station concourse tunnels directly around the parade route for security purposes.
I grabbed a spot at 17th and Parkway with my friend. I was a bit surprised by the lack of crowds, but that was probably due to the fact I wasn't aware the parade wouldn't start until about 11am and take a good 1-2 hours to reach my location.
After the parade passed we attempted to walk via a non-direct route to the Art Museum, but the crowds were too much to get anywhere close so my friend and I decided to abort and walk along Spring Garden St to Triple Bottom brewing located inside the old Reading Spring Garden St station. On the way we ran into the Concrete Cowboys, a well known urban riding stable that had taken over the street because all the normal "rules" had been suspended for the parade xD They stopped their roundup at the String Garden St Broad Street Subway entrance as my friend and I continued on to get lunch and a green beer.
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The point of the brewery tour was to 1) find a TV to watch the ceremony in front of the Art Museum and 2) wait out the crowds returning to New Jersey on PATCO. We were prepared to wait until 6 or 7pm, but got word that there was no wait around 5p. After walking all the way from Spring Garden my friend and I were greeted by a fresh train lead by car #1085
PATCO was wrong railing across the Ben Franklin bridge so I managed to get this video of the process including the long crossover at 8th and market.
In past years I could have used the concourse system to travel directly to City Hall, but it was still fenced off, forcing me onto the street. Despite cleanup efforts a lot of parade trash was still around along with this cool street art mural of Saquon Birdley.
The old flagship John Wanamaker department store is mostly known for three things, the Eagle, the Grand Court Organ and the Christmas Light Show. Since it was February I was only able to partake of the first two. Old John Wanamaker clearly knew how to find bargains as the Eagle statue was bought as surplus from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition and the core of the organ was bought from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Wanamaker's as a chain was purchased in 1994 by the May company and between 1995 and 2006 it was converted fist into a Hecht's, then a Strawbridge's, and then a Lord & Taylor before it settled upon its final incarnation as a Macy's in 2006.
Although the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ is the world's largest existing musical instrument, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ is currently the largest playable instrument with 28,762 pipes in 465 ranks. Expanded in stages between 1911 and 1930, the console and method of operation can be considered a child of the electro-mechanical era, on par with panel telephone switches and power interlocking machines. For those of you who are unaware, a mega organ such as this can be considered a pre-electronic synthesizer. Most of the 28000 pipes simulate non-organ instruments like strings and horns turning the organist into a meat based sound processor that can render music of orchestral complexity.
The small number of visible pipes and their decorative surroundings are actually a facade lifted directly from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The actual pipes are tucked away in chambers behind the end wall of the grand court. An automatic louvre system helps modulate the volume. When Macy's took over, operation and maintenance of the organ was turned over to the non-profit Friends of the Wanamaker Organ. With the store closing, live performances were to go on hiatus until a sale and redevelopment plan could be finalized.
Heading back to New Jersey I caught a pair of PATCO trains at 12th/13th and Locust. Later that evening I would travel back to the city **again** to connect with my Acela train back to Baltimore, that time using both the Haddonfield and 8th and Market stations. So over the course of the extended weekend I somehow used three different New Jersey PATCO stations and every Center City station.
Due to the lateness of the hour, I decided to use the MFL to get to 30th St. Here are MFL M-4 cars #1141 and #1030 at 8th St and 30th St respectively.
Down on the platform I ran into ACS-86 #649 and Acela power car #2016. I would actually be on the Acela that day due to a surprisingly competitive ticket price.
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