Which Philadelphia store hosted a large Mother's Day ceremony in 1908?

The Philadelphia store that hosted a large Mother’s Day ceremony in 1908 was Wanamaker’s. Its Wanamaker Auditorium provided the setting for a major Philadelphia observance connected with Anna Jarvis’s campaign.

The first official Mother’s Day worship service took place on May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. A larger ceremony was held the same day in the Wanamaker store in Philadelphia, helping move the observance from a local memorial into a nationally visible event.

Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker supported Jarvis’s efforts to establish the holiday. The store’s role is sometimes confused with the church service in West Virginia, but these were separate events: Grafton hosted the inaugural worship service, while Wanamaker’s hosted the large Philadelphia ceremony.

Wanamaker’s was a prominent Philadelphia department store founded by John Wanamaker. The flagship building later became a Lord & Taylor store and then a Macy’s, but the 1908 ceremony belongs to the store’s earlier history.