The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1885-11-21
Letter from Philadelphia.

Letter from Philadelphia.
Not one of your readers but will be
glad to hear about the rebuilding of
Wanamaker's.
1t didn't burn. 1t didn't fall down. 1t
didn't vanish out of sight. 1t has been
full of people ever since the Centennial.
1t was part of the show. Not soul here
that didn't see it, It has been growing
more and more the show of Philadelphia
ever since-the more because it was out
of the common run of city shows.
1t has been done over from bottom to
top and nobody knows it. Next We'd
nesday morning we in the city are going
to find it out. You in the country will |
know il about as soon.
We don't all of us, like Manamakers |
overmuch, you know. Some of us think |
it would be vastly better if all this trade |
could be scattered over the city as it |
used to be-no, not exactly as il used to |
be. And yet it is a very handy place
Some say we might as well complain of
our markets There isn't anything good
that doesn't bother somebody. We, men
in business, don't like it-can't answer
for our wives-but we go to see it all the
same; and take our friends there. Be-
cause we can't keep away from it our
selves, because we can't keep our wives
away, because we can't entertain our
visitors without going to Wanamakers
with them, and because people outside
imagine that Wanamaker's is about all
there is of Philadelphia anyhow-for
these several reasons thought would
tell your readers about this rebuilding
without rebuilding.
We used to think of the old place ten
years ago and before as Freight Depot.
Then it was Grand Depot, singular
name, but not more strange than the
medley of use it was put to. Now it has
taken on another phase-bare beams
and rafters no longer; plate glass, white
paint, mahogany, brass, air, light; wide,
lofty, spacious, clean; not n place to
whistle in; one leaves his pipe at the
door without thinking.
And yet it has all come about without
anybody's knowing it.
Several years ago they began to put up
galleries. They never take anything
down there-What has become of them?
More galleries then wider; then two
got into one Nobody has thought of
galleries there for years. They have
grown into stories.
We remember little bit of a cellar
There were trunks in it. Somebody said
he would rather have that dark little
cellar to sell trunks in than the biggest
store on Chestnut street. There was
another cellar where boxes and bales
were opened. One day, when nobody
was thinking of any such thing, long
lines of wheel-barrows dumped the dirt
that lay between those cellars in carts on
the street. and what became of it
nobody knows but the cellars got to-
gether, just as the galleries did. Cellars
no longer-We have known man to go
through that basement over and over
again and wonder when he got away
how the sunlight got into it. Nobody has
thought of cellar there for years,
There is cellar there still. Down
down, down-the big chimney comes
out of it. There is fire and steam and
CRIME and lightning down there. No
body sees that slbterranean region.l
There was toy room down there once
1t was stutfy. A great many people want
ed to see the toys. Children use air VI
as well as we, elders. Nobody thinks o
the basement as stufiy. It's out-of-dOOr
in Indian summer; Florida in winter
seaside or mountain from June TO Sep
TENDER; and England [where the poets
May comes FRONT in spring.
After all these stealthy TRANSITIONAL
, tons done before our very eyes, store
full of people and merchandise, trading
looking, wondering, chatting, gettin
done up into parcels, in a bale, out in
bundle, suddenly the roof leaps up il
the air, the walls stretch up, littl
street gets caught in the magic and dis
appears, a crystal roof shoots over it an
Robert and Stephen Girard look quietl
down from the ends out of stained -glas
windows.
And now in the place of the rough oil
building, made all the rougher an
meaner by breadth, and the low dar
beams and boards overhead, there
light and air and open space and loftl
ceiling. And nobody knew it was con
ing. Ten acres of modern store out I
less than three of timber and dirt.
s. You know how our City Hall h;
gone up. You saw its walls about te
feet high when Wanamaker's bega
above-grounds, working down like
mole, and up like the pyramd-builer
The statue isn't yet on the top of IL
tower.
If Wanamaker's had grown like tha
it might have become a statelier bull
ing; but We shouldn't have had it
look at and take our friends to. Possib
people might have waited for it an
when it was done, rushed in and owe
whelmed it with trade. Possibly a sto
Z can't be built while people are waitin
Possibly people don't wait 1t has grow
in the night, every night While IL
"A rest of us sleep, the tireless builde
Id have built the wonderful place.
NtDps