The twelve-floor granite building, occupying an entire city block with two million square feet of retail space, is not only a store; with a central court four stories tall and a massive organ at its center, it also stands as a great cathedral of commerce. The Wanamaker family arranged to have it transported and reassembled to form a central focal point in the store, partly out of their love for the instrument and to create a soothing atmosphere for the store's customers and staff, and partly to inspire purchases of the pianos that were available for sale on the third floor of the store.[...] much did Wanamaker stores resemble places of worship, one cartoonist from The New Yorker in the 1940s was prompted to ask" What denomination is Wanamaker's?" 2 The religious environment of the stores reflected Wanamaker's own deeply held spiritual convictions, but had the added benefit of luring women into the business districts that were previously male preserves. Wharton registers her concern at the manner in which the cultural and material plates of society were shifting as buildings and traditions were being dismantled, refitted and moulded for new purposes when she has Hayes bellow,'This vacant lot on your right,[...] was formerly the site of Selffidge B. Merry's five-million-dollar marble mansion, lately sold to the Amalgamated Searchlight Company, who are about to erect on it a twenty-five-million-dollar skyscraper of fifty stories, with roof gymnasium, cabaret terrace, New Thought church and airplane landing...'