Sessions has been featured or referenced in the literature of gardens, horticulture and landscape for more than a century. In recent decades the example of her unconventional career and impactful civic engagement has been noted in works on the societal standing of women and their progress in business and the professions. The following references to Sessions have been found in the course of my own research, but this listing is not offered as a comprehensive survey.
Beatty, Russell A. “Long, Enduring Patterns.” In Gardens of Alcatraz (San Francisco: Golden Gate National Parks Association, 1996), 29-60.
Freddie Reichel, secretary to the warden of Alcatraz prison from 1934 until 1941, was impressed by the gardens created by the Army on the island and in his free time became an expert, self-taught gardener. He enlisted advice and plants from “a group of experts that reads like a Who’s Who of California horticulture: Kate Sessions of San Diego, Hugh Evans of Los Angeles, and Edward O. Orpet of Santa Barbara.”
Bevil, Alexander D. “Emmor Brooke Weaver.” In Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts and Crafts Architects of California, Robert Winter, ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 209-218.
Jane Easton’s Weaver-designed La Jolla bungalow reflected the architect’s appreciation for the simplicity of Japanese house design, as did “the gardens it long boasted,” which were “reportedly designed by the landscape architect Kate Sessions” (p. 213).
Butterfield, Harry Morton. See Taylor, Tangible Memories.
Bulkley, William. Cal-Andaluz: New California Landscapes Rooted in Andalusia. Thesis (M.A. Fine Arts). San Diego State University, 1995.
The 1923 A. H. Sweet house in San Diego’s Bankers Hill is one of three designs studied in a focus on Moorish-Hispano inspired landscaping in Southern California. Landscaped by Paul G. Thiene with a small contribution by Sessions, the architects were Mead and Requa.
California Coastal Commission. California Coastal Resource Guide . . . , ed. Madge Caughman and Joanne S. Ginsberg, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).
All coastal counties are described, with Sessions receiving a brief mention in the San Diego County section for her extensive tree planting in Balboa Park.
Christman, Florence. The Romance of Balboa Park, 4th ed. (San Diego: San Diego Historical Society, 1985). [First edition was a 1977 pamphlet published by the Committee of 100.]
At the inception of the park, Kate Sessions was there with her splendid persuasion in planning and landscape. She is purported to have said, “I would rather be remembered for one beautiful tree than for all the marble in the world” (p. xi). A section of this book is entitled “Impact of Kate Sessions” (p. 16-20). Photographs show the barrenness of the park lands as Sessions found them.
Cohen, Hannah S. and Harris, Gloria G. Remarkable Women of San Diego: Pioneers, Visionaries and Innovators (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.: Arcadia Press, 2016).
Kate Sessions is among the luminaries profiled in this book.
Duchscherer, Paul. Outside the Bungalow: America’s Arts & Crafts Garden (New York: Penguin Studio, 1999).
In a discussion of El Alisal, the Highland Park home and garden of Charles Fletcher Lummis, who championed the natural garden in Southern California, the author writes (p. 28): If Lummis pioneered the idea of a natural meadow garden in California, Kate Sessions (1857-1940) tamed it and put it to work . . . . With a keen interest in plants adapted to the local climate, she also for many years operated a florist shop and a nursery that specialized in native plants. She was responsible for introducing many plants to the local marketplace, and almost singlehandedly transformed the landscape of San Diego. . . . Sessions discouraged having water-guzzling lawns in local landscaping schemes and encouraged substituting a wide selection of plantings more compatible with the dry climate. Among these are the dramatically spiked forms of yucca and agave, still very much in evidence in the residential landscaping of San Diego today. A good example of her approach was the garden Sessions designed in 1911 for the B. F. Chase house in San Diego in collaboration with the progressive and influential architect Irving Gill (1870-1936). In a logical and practical response to the region, she chose a variety of drought-tolerant plants for the hillside garden and set them into a series of terraces formed by low retaining walls of local stone. Although she encouraged their use, not all of her plant choices were indigenous. The bougainvillaeas, banana, cotoneaster, eucalyptus, and Italian cypress she used were imported species, and would become extremely popular throughout the region.
Engstrand, Iris H. San Diego: California’s Cornerstone (Tulsa, Okla.: Continental Heritage Press, 1980).
Sessions receives a brief mention as a teacher and early developer of the city park (p. 55), as the landscaper for the Hotel del Coronado (p. 57), and for her later lease deal with the City of San Diego whereby she planted hundreds of trees in payment for the use of 32 acres of city park as a nursery (p. 70).
Fetzer, Leland. San Diego County Names, A To Z (San Diego: Sunbelt Publications, 2005).
The San Diego neighborhood, Golden Hill, was said to have gotten its name because Kate Sessions planted many yellow-blooming acacias in the area. [The more credible explanation is that developer Daniel Schuyler petitioned for the use of the name Golden Hill in 1887.]
French, Jere Stuart. The California Garden and the Landscape Architects Who Shaped It (Washington, D.C.: The Landscape Architecture Foundation, 1993).
Sessions is mentioned as an influence both on San Diego and on another of the featured landscape artists, Paul Thiene, garden designer for the Panama-California Exposition at Balboa Park and later on estates in Los Angeles and Pasadena. “Working with Kate Sessions, San Diego’s leading importer of ornamental plants, was no doubt of great benefit to Thiene” (p. 100). “In San Diego, the art of garden design had languished after the departures of Kate Sessions and Paul Thiene,” . . . but in time Harriet Wimmer filled the void and inherited “Kate Sessions’ position of preeminence as the city’s leading woman gardener” (p. 206).
Fross, David and Wilken, Dieter. Ceanothus (Portland, Ore.: Timber Press, 2006).
“Kate Sessions introduced Ceanothus cyaneus into the California nursery trade in the 1920s, and it quickly gained popularity in southern California . . . ” (p. 51).
Gebhard, Patricia. George Washington Smith: Architect of the Spanish Colonial Revival (Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2005).
Sessions is mentioned in the description of Number 283 in the list of Smith’s buildings, the Mrs. Freida Kolb House, Bel Air, California. “Kate Sessions was to have done its gardens and was asked to visit the site before the grading was done for the house.” (p. 168).
Gilmer, Maureen. Redwoods and Roses: The Gardening Heritage of California and the Old West (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Co., 1995).
This protegee of Milton Sessions includes a short, standard biographical tribute to his aunt, Kate Sessions, in a book about the relationship Californians have developed with nature and the unique gardens and landscapes created in the state.
Griswold, Mac and Weller, Eleanor. The Golden Age of American Gardens (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991).
“California experienced the beginning of an original, indigenous gardening style in the assemblage of drought resistant plants made by Kate Sessions of San Diego for the architects Eric [sic] Gill and Will Templeton Johnson’s adobe houses and in the informal bungalows of . . . Greene & Greene” (p. 313). Sessions “was an ecologist long before the term was invented” (p. 345). “She introduced Californians to their own flowers” coaxing them into trying various natives (p. 346). “Fifty years ahead of their time . . . Gill and Sessions designed ecologically sound gardens filled with native plants” (p. 346).
Hart, John; Beatty, Russell A. and Boland, Michael. The Gardens of Alcatraz (San Francisco: Golden Gate National Parks Assn, 1996).
Sessions was a consultant for dry-climate gardening experiments on Alcatraz Island, along with Hugh Evans of Los Angeles and Edward Orpet from Santa Barbara. Succulents planted at Sessions’ recommendation thrived on Alcatraz.
Hertrich, William. The Huntington Botanical Gardens 1905 . . . 1949 Personal Recollections (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1988).
The head gardener at the Huntington estate writes:“From San Diego I once procured a number of tall Cocos plumosa palms, which we loaded onto flat cars and which were delivered to the spur track at the ranch. . . .” (p. 36). “In those early days I made frequent trips to nurseries where desirable material could be found . .. .” Mr. Huntington accompanied Hertrich on the train to San Diego and to the Sessions Nursery “where I ordered a considerable quantity of plant material . . . .”(p. 37).
Hines, Thomas S. Irving Gill and the Architecture of Reform: A Study in Modernist Architectural Culture (New York: Monacelli Press, 2000).
“Gill also engaged, at every opportunity, the pioneer horticulturist Kate Session, who designed and planted the grounds around many of his building as she did at Balboa Park and for gardens throughout the San Diegoarea” (p. 84). In describing the landscaping of the Hebbard & Gill arts and crafts Marston home in San Diego, the author mentions Sessions’ role in the“naturalistic planting and landscaping of the neighboring park (Balboa Park) . . . Kate Sessions imparted a consanguine informality to her treatment of the Marston grounds” (p. 56). “The plantings for the houses [built on Albatross Street in San Diego] were again supervised by the botanist Kate Sessions, Gill’s friend and colleague who designed the gardens for many of his buildings” (p. 159).
History of San Diego County, Carl H. Heilbron, ed.-in-chief (San Diego: San Diego Press Club, 1936).
Sessions is briefly mentioned in the chapter on the development of parks in San Diego County (p. 158).
Hopkins, Joe. The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever (La Jolla, CA: Beach Lane Books, 2013).
A charmingly illustrated and award-winning children’s book celebrating Sessions’ independence and influence as a planter of trees.
Kamerling, Bruce A. Irving J. Gill, Architect (San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Historical Society, 1993).
Kate Sessions’ partnership with the architect is explored in this first full-length biography of Gill.
King, Mrs. Francis [Louisa Yeomans]. Pages From a Garden Note-Book. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1931).
One of the most celebrated garden writers of her time features Kate Sessions in a book with chapters on Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and how to organize a garden club. Sessions' design for the Robert home in Coronado is central to a chapter on “Spanish Gardens.” Sessions’ name is “synonymous with great knowledge of the trees, shrubs, and flowers of [her] region and with the beautiful use of such things . . . .” Her Coronado garden is beautiful for its foliage color, forms, and arrangement. (P. 107). The plantings are described in detail over several pages and two photographs of the house and garden are among just 20 illustrations in the book. Kate Sessions is also acknowledged in the preface for her assistance in describing the California plants mentioned in the book.
Kinzie, Veronica K. “The Western Nursery.” In Vignettes of Early San Francisco Homes and Gardens comp. by Mrs. Silas Palmer and Mrs. E. E. Brownell (San Francisco Garden Club, 1935), 24-25. Photocopy in San Diego History Center Biographical Files, “Sessions.”
San Francisco nursery owner Charles Abraham in the early part of 1889 “imported eighteen bougainvillea plants, the first of this species to be introduced into California. They were a sorry sight after their long trip from Chile, but under the tender care of Mr. Abraham and Miss Kate Sessions, they soon came to life.” [Note: Other accounts give a much earlier date for the introduction of other bougainvillea species into California.]
Lawrence, George H. M. “Horticulture.” In A Short History of Botany in the United States, ed. Joseph Ewan (New York: Hafner Publishing Co., 1969), 132-45.
“California produced two great plantswomen, each of whom made her own indelible marks: Kate Sessions and Alice Eastwood . . . . Constantly searching and importing from the world over, [Sessions] introduced perhaps one hundred of the ornamentals now common to the region. A person of dynamic personality, she wrote well and effectively, traveled and lectured widely.”
Levick, Melba and Prentice, Helaine Kaplan. The Gardens of Southern California. (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1990).
In Balboa Park “the finest old trees that catch your eye are the legacy of Kate Olivia Sessions, a dedicated horticulturist who altered gardening habits by popularizing native and imported species” (p. 104).
MacPhail, Elizabeth C. Kate Sessions: Pioneer Horticulturist (San Diego, CA: San Diego Historical Society, 1976).
The only published biography of Sessions, this book adequately tells the story of her life and makes some effort to place her in a larger historical perspective. First-hand accounts by those who knew Sessions personally are incorporated. Substantial research was undertaken by the author, but additional primary source materials about Sessions have come to light. Reviews:
Garcia, Rosalie. “Kate Sessions: A Book Review.” Review of Kate Sessions: Pioneer Horticulturist, by Elizabeth C. MacPhail. California Garden 68:5 (Sept./Oct 1977): 132-134.
This review recapitulates the highlights of Sessions’ life and career at some length and highly recommends the book.
Otis, Arthur F. “Biography Hails ‘Mother of Balboa Park’,” San Diego Union, June 12, 1977, F-13.
A regular garden columnist for the San Diego Union praises biographer Elizabeth MacPhail for the “tremendous amount of research” undertaken and the “superb job” she did producing the book.
Martinez, Michele Lee. Kate Olivia Sessions: Plant Scientist, Thesis (M.A. History). University of San Diego, 1998.
This thesis offers a greater focus than the MacPhail book on Sessions as a horticulturist.
McCormick, Kathleen. The Garden Lover’s Guide to the West (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000).
Sessions is identified as the planter of the mature trees at the historic Marston House in San Diego and Balboa Park is called “one of the nation’s lushest urban parks, thanks to horticulturist Kate Sessions” (p. 95).
Norwood, Vera. Made from This Earth: American Women and Nature (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993).
In a chapter on women’s garden traditions, Kate Sessions is discussed as a garden designer “who was available to assist the middle-class, suburban gardener.” She earned fame through her commitment to gardening in terms dictated by the climate and soil of her region, using plants adapted to the environment and encouraging the use of native plants. She was active in a national network of women in horticulture and cherished those friendships.
O’Dell, Scott. Country of the Sun: Southern California an Informal History and Guide (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Co., 1957).
Sessions’ contributions to Balboa Park are enthusiastically presented, along with the author’s personal recollection of meeting Sessions when she was 80 years old (pp. 64-66).
Padilla, Victoria. Southern California Gardens: An Illustrated History (Berkeley: California University Press, 1961; reprinted Santa Barbara: Allen A. Knoll, 1994).
Sessions is included among the biographies of prominent plant people in this documentation of the history of botanical development in southern California, sponsored by the Southern California Horticulture Institute. Review:
Carswell, Helen D. [Review of Padilla: Southern California Gardens] California Garden 52, no. (Oct.-Nov. 1961), 18.
[Photograph of Sessions standing by a flowering tree. Print dress with lace collar, shawl sweater, hat.] San Diego Union-Tribune photo, courtesy Historical Collection, Union-Title Insurance Company, San Diego.
Pourade, Richard F. The History of San Diego, 5 vols. (San Diego: Union-Tribune Publishing Co., 1964-65).
Sessions is briefly mentioned in Volume 4 (The Glory Years) as starting the planting in the City Park (p. 233) and in Volume 5 (Gold in the Sun), also in regard to the park (p. 32). The latter volume has a photograph of palm trees planted by Sessions in the downtown city plaza (p. 33).
Power, Nancy Goslee. The Gardens of California: Four Centuries of Design from Mission to Modern (New York: Clarkson Potter Publishers, 1995).
Sessions is briefly mentioned as playing “a parallel and very influential role in San Diego,” alongside other California botanists and nursery owners who “found a wealth of native flora” which they supplemented with introduced exotics from Australia, South America, Africa, and other regions where the climatic conditions were compatible with California’s (p. 4). Sessions also gets credit for the drought-adapted gardens she designed to complement the “austere and stunning residences” created by architect Irving Gill (p. 17).
Pregill, Philip and Volkman, Nancy. Landscapes in History: Design and Planning in the Eastern and Western Traditions, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1999).
In a description of California landscaping, the authors link Sessions and landscape architect Lockwood de Forest. “A consistent theme in these California gardens was use of regionally unique plant material” from a rich native palette adapted to dry conditions and thin soils. Note: These authors overstate Sessions’ preference for native plants over those exotics proven to be responsible choices for the climate of California (pp. 635-36).
Puplava, Kathy and Sirois, Paul. Trees and Gardens of Balboa Park. ([San Diego]: City of San Diego Park and Recreation Department, 2001).
Among the listed trees Kate Sessions is credited with popularizing in Southern California are Baily acacia (Acacia baileyana), Bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), Purple orchid tree (Bauhinia variegata), Morton bay chestnut (Castanospermum australe), Floss silk tree (Chorisia speciosa), Guadalupe cypress (Cypressus guadalupensis), Lemon-scented gum (Eucalyptus citriodona), Silk oak (Grevillea robusta), Sweetshade (Hymenosporum flavum), Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia), Twisted juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Torulosa’), Chinese flame tree (Koelreuteria bipinanta), Victorian box (Pittosporum undulatum), Brazilian pepper tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), King palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), Guadalupe palm (Brahea edulis), Pindo or Jelly palm (Butia capitata), Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis), Kentia or Sentry palm (Howea foresteriana), Queen palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana), and Windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). In this book Kate Sessions is credited with introducing to San Diego the Cork oak (Quercus suber) and Tipu tree (Tipuana tipu). The tree planted in memory of Kate Sessions and the wording on the plaque is listed under Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens).
Raab, Joy. Kate Sessions: Mother of Balboa Park (LaMesa, Calif.: Ridgway Park Publishing, 2003).
Written for children, this book tells the Sessions story in simple terms, with emphasis on her contributions to the city park in San Diego.
Riley, Glenda. Women and Nature: Saving the “Wild” West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999).
In a chapter discussing illustrators, artists, photographers, gardeners, and landscape architects–the visual image makers who “put nature in an appealing format” that “convinced people that the environment could be shaped, managed, and conserved for human use,” Sessions is cited as a woman who seized the opportunity to influence gardening philosophy, in her case by advocating the use of native plants. Sessions is compared with famous English gardener Gertrude Jekyll, in that they both flaunted customs regarding appropriate female attire and the conventions of family life but significantly influenced public and private gardens in their spheres of influence (p. 91).
Robens, Alma Kathryn. Charlotte Baker: First Woman Physician and Community Leader in Turn of Nineteenth Century San Diego. Thesis. San Diego State University, 1992.
Near contemporaries, Baker (1855-1937) and Sessions (1857-1940) were of New England stock and both worked in non-traditional professions for women. Dr. Baker came to San Diego in 1888. Their interests overlapped in such activities as the “College Graduate Club” (later the University Club) founded by Baker for intellectual companionship. Sessions attended the first meeting of this club on October 8, 1896, (pp. 41-42) and worked with Baker, Hazel Waterman, Elisha Babcock, and others in the College Women’s Club, organized for the “betterment of the social needs of the entire city” (pp. 72-74).
Rountree, Lester. Flowering Shrubs of California and Their Value to the Gardener (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1947).
Sessions is credited with popularizing the cultivation of the California native lilac, Ceanothus cyaneus. After the plant was found in San Diego County, Sessions propagated seeds and grew and sold plants from her nursery. “Surely such collecting can come under no other name than that of conservation,” Rountree observes, particularly as the native stands of the plant were disappearing (pp 58-59).
Saunders, Charles Francis. Trees and Shrubs of California Gardens. (New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1926).
From this highly-regarded garden writer, Miss K. O. Sessions receives an acknowledgment in the introduction for her assistance in the preparation of this book, and an accolade for her preeminent “influence upon the floral development of San Diego, and indeed of all Southern California” (p. 57).
Schmidt, Marjorie G. Growing California Native Plants (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
A very brief mention recognizes Sessions as one who collected and propagated many outstanding native plants in San Diego (p. 6).
Sessions, Kate O. The Complete Writings of Kate Sessions in California Garden, New Edition. Ed. John Blocker, Nancy Carol Carter, Thea Gurns, and Lee Somerville (San Diego: San Diego Floral Association, 2020).
The new edition of Sessions’ collected magazine articles includes biographical and other information as well as many vintage photographs.
Showley, Roger M. Balboa Park: A Millennium History (Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media Corp., 1999). [Photograph.]
Sessions is given credit for helping San Diego understand the potential of a large city park by way of her plantings along Sixth Avenue during the period of her lease of park land to house her nursery (1892-1903). This book of photographs includes an early picture of Sessions (pp. 22-23).
Sigg, Eric. California Public Gardens: A Visitor’s Guide (Santa Fe: John Muir Publications, 1991).
Sigg acknowledges Session’s work in San Diego’s Balboa Park. “Of the many leaders instrumental in protecting and developing the park horticulturally during its formative decades, a single figure towers above the rest. As early as 1889, Kate Sessions led a party that planted a small area on the park’s west side . . . . Until she died in 1940, Sessions was so closely involved in the financing, planning, planting, and irrigating for park horticulture that she became known as ‘the Mother of Balboa Park’” (pp.7-8).
Smythe, William Ellsworth. History of San Diego, 1542-1907: An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Pioneer Settlement on the Pacific Coast of the United States. (San Diego: History Co., 1907).
Sessions does not make it into the book’s index, but wins mention in regard to the development of Balboa Park (page 619): ”In 1892 a tract of 36 acres was leased to Miss Kate O. Sessions for use as a nursery, on condition of the permanent planting of 100 trees, and the donation of 300 more to the city, annually. When Miss Sessions removed her nursery there was left the beginning of the first satisfactory planting in the park.”
Starr, Kevin. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
In a discussion of her work in helping to develop Balboa Park, Sessions receives a brief biography and is called “a remarkable woman in a city in which women, from Madame Tingley to Joan Kroc and Helen Copley, would play conspicuous public roles” (pp. 105-06).
Streatfield, David. “The Arts and Crafts Garden in California.” In The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life, ed. Kenneth R. Trapp (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), 35-53.
“A completely different form of hillside garden was created in San Diego by the horticulturist Kate O. Sessions, working with such architects as Irving Gill, Frank Mead, and Richard S. Requa. . . . This group of designers established a garden type using drought-tolerant plants and low cobblestone terrace walls. . . . Sessions’s plantings sought to establish a new ecological order derived more from a sense of what would grow in the specific climatic conditions rather than from a predetermined set of visual ordering principles.” This discussion is accompanied by a photograph and critique of a garden designed by Sessions for a home in Coronado designed by William Templeton Johnson.
Streatfield, David. California Gardens: Creating A New Eden (New York: Abbeville Press, 1994).
Sessions receives high praise as a pioneering figure in low-water landscaping. Two of her gardens are featured and shown in photographs. One in Coronado offers “a drought-tolerant alternative to a lawn” and celebrates “the Mediterranean landscape of San Diego” (page 68). Her different form of hillside garden, created in association with Irving Gill, showed Sessions’ sensitivity “to the need for an approach to gardening that acknowledged San Diego’s dry climate.” Her nursery “offered many native plants.” (page 71-72).
Taylor, Judith M. and Butterfield, Harry Morton. Tangible Memories: Californians and their Gardens 1800-1950 (n.p., Xlibris Corp., 2003), 415-417.
“For many years Miss Sessions had a great influence on the city’s landscape, working her magic through her energetic voice and her domineering but loving way. The response of others inspired her to do more. She called attention to the great value of several native plants for garden used (sic), such as the Matillija poppy, Ceanothus cyaneus, and Fremontia. She introduced bougainvillea, acacia, eucalyptus, trumpet flower, Cissus capensis, and others to the area.” . . . “Unlike San Francisco and Sacramento, nurseries were much slower to appear in San Diego. The city was developed more gradually. Gold rush fortunes did not percolate down so far south. Water was a serious problem. J.A. Asher started the first known nursery in San Diego in the 1880s. It was followed by Kate Sessions, Ernest (sic) Benard and George Otto.”
Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science 1789-1979, ed. Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987).
Sessions makes a brief appearance in this scholarly look at the obstacles, lack of acceptance and personal trade-offs forced upon women pursing scientific interests and careers. Sessions represents the option of eschewing marriage and traditional family life while pursuing work in a male-dominated field.
Webster, John. Originally Pacific Beach: Looking Back at the Heritage of a Unique Community, 2023, rev. 2016, https://thewebsters.us/history/OriginallyPB.pdf.
This online chronicle includes a chapter detailing the property ownership and neighborhood involvement of Kate Sessions and her brother Frank in the Pacific Beach area, beginning with their purchase and lease of land in 1924 and continuing though the establishment of her Pacific Beach Nursery, construction of a home on Mount Soledad and her last illness and death. Information is footnoted to original sources.
Williams, Stephanie. Designing Nature: A Uniquely Subtropical Landscape in Balboa Park. Thesis (M.S. History), California State University San Marcos, 2021.
Kate Sessions is frequently referenced in this graduate student’s study of the landscapers and landscape trends that shaped Balboa Park.