- Kate Sessions
Katherine Olivia "Kate" Sessions (
November 8 ,1857 –March 24 ,1940 ) was an Americanbotanist ,horticulturalist , andlandscape architect closely associated withSan Diego, California , and known as the "Mother of Balboa Park."Born in
San Francisco, California , she graduated from theUniversity 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.
Honors
In the San Diego area, the [http://www.sessionsschool.com/ Kate Sessions Elementary school] bears her name as does Kate O. Sessions Memorial Park on
Mount Soledad .References
*cite book | author=MacPhail, Elizabeth C. | title=Kate Sessions : pioneer horticulturist | publisher=San Diego Historical Society | year=1976
External links
* [http://www.sandiegohistory.org/bio/sessions/sessions.htm Sessions biography] (San Diego Historical Society)
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