Kate Sessions

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Kate Sessions' statue at Kate Sessions Park, in Balboa Park
Kate Sessions' statue at Kate Sessions Park, in Balboa Park

Katherine Olivia "Kate" Sessions (November 8, 1857 – March 24, 1940) was an American botanist, horticulturalist, and landscape architect closely associated with San Diego, California, and known as the "Mother of Balboa Park."

Born in San Francisco, California, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1881. In 1885, she started a commercial nursery on Coronado.

Sessions struck a deal with the City of San Diego, in 1892, to plant 100 trees a year in Balboa Park, in exchange for 30 acres to use as a nursery. This arrangement left the park with an array of cypress, pine, oaks, pepper trees and eucalyptus planted from seeds imported from around the world; Sessions is credited with importing and popularizing the jacaranda, now very familiar in the city.

Kate Sessions died at age 82 in San Diego. She is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery.

[edit] Honors

In the San Diego area, the Kate Sessions Elementary school bears her name as does Kate O. Sessions Memorial Park on Mount Soledad.

[edit] References

  • MacPhail, Elizabeth C. (1976). Kate Sessions : pioneer horticulturist. San Diego Historical Society. 

[edit] External links