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Milton Sessions: Master Landscape Designer
By Alana Coons
January/February 2025
 A cover of Sessions Garden Pointers newsletter, volume 1, number 4. Courtesy Coons collection |
 Milton P. Sessions standing in front of the Ford Building, c. 1930. Courtesy SDASM |
 Milton's Spanish Revival style store in Old Town designed by achitect Richard S. Requa in 1929. Courtesy Coons collection |
Milton Paine Sessions was born in San Diego in 1900 and grew up firmly rooted in the art and science of horticulture. His father, Frank Sessions, was a notable nurseryman, and his aunt, Kate Sessions, is renowned as one of San Diego’s premier pioneering horticulturists. Under their tutelage, Milton was able to lay exceptionally strong ground working the cultivation of plants and trees.
In 1908, when he was 8 years old, Milton began working at his Aunt Kate’s West Lewis Street nursery (now Mission Hills Nursery), performing such formative tasks as weeding, picking snails, and, later, making deliveries. Eventually, he grew this humble foundation into successful enterprises of his own, including a nursery, a landscape contracting business, a landscape architecture practice, and even a retail florist shop.
Of his famous aunt, Milton told Phyllis Orrick for the San Diego Reader in 1995, “…she devoted all her waking hours to work [in her nursery]. She had an office above the level of her dining room. I could see her every night there studying her horticultural subjects with the glow from a lamp lighting her face...”
His father Frank was the first in San Diego to grow poinsettias commercially and was known for his expertise in moving and replanting large, mature trees. Indeed, Frank planted all the specimen trees for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.
These experiences instilled in Milton a strong work ethic and comprehensive knowledge of plants. By 1920, Kate had made her 20-year-old nephew a business partner. Milton soon branched out, launching his own nursery and landscaping business in Old Town, signaling his independence. His operation included two half-blocks of growing yards, and a Spanish Revival style store designed by architect Richard S. Requa in 1929, which was later incorporated into Old Town State Historic Park. This nursery was the nucleus for his growing landscape design business, catering to prominent neighborhoods like Coronado, La Jolla, and Mission Hills. The building still stands today as Toby’s Candle Shop at 2645 San Diego Ave.
In the late 1920s, Milton collaborated extensively with the in-demand Requa, providing landscaping for the homes the architect designed for some of San Diego’s most influential residents in Coronado, La Jolla, Mission Hills, and Rancho Santa Fe. Their travels together in 1928 to photograph the grand gardens of Europe and North Africa inspired much of both men’s work from then on. This experience profoundly influenced Milton’s landscape philosophy, emphasizing the harmonious integration of architecture and gardens. He lectured and published on the topic extensively.
Milton had already begun the first significant tree planting at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in the mid-1920s, showcasing his talent for large-scale landscape design. Other prominent commissions included the Naval Training Center, the old Naval Hospital in Balboa Park, Roosevelt and Memorial junior high schools and work for philanthropist George Marston at Presidio Park, as well as landscaping private estates for affluent clients.
Milton’s reputation soared through the 1920s and 1930s as he carved a distinctive path with his Modernist and Mediterranean-inspired aesthetics. Like his father and aunt before him, he left his indelible mark on Balboa Park, particularly with a large Ford Motor Corp. commission at the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition. The Ford Building's promenade led to the Roads of the Pacific drive-through exhibit—one of Milton’s most significant and ambitious achievements. In it, he replicated landscapes for 14 California roads and highways from different eras, with each section 196 feet long and 12 feet wide. A souvenir brochure captured the memorable effect, “On the Roads of the Pacific, one may swing back in imagination through a thousand years or more; riding at ease in a 1935 car....”
In the early 1940s, he seized an opportunity to expand and relocate his business into a more affluent neighborhood, La Jolla. He bought a triangular piece of land at Torrey Pines Road and Girard Avenue and established Sessions Garden Store and Nursery, a community hub that flourished until the late 1950s.
Milton’s influence extended beyond landscaping; he played a key role in shaping La Jolla’s development by spearheading the creation of its first merchant association and drafting a visionary, though ultimately unrealized, master landscape blueprint, known as the Eliot Plan. He developed it in 1946 in collaboration with Charles Eliot, a prominent planning consultant, and Glen Rick of the San Diego Planning Department.
The Eliot Plan proposed a cohesive, park-like system of development. It envisioned a rich cultural complex along and around Prospect Street, incorporating key landmarks such as The Bishop’s School, Scripps Clinic and Hospital, the Art Center, the La Jolla Woman’s Club, and the La Jolla Presbyterian and St. James-by-the-Sea churches. The plan also designated eight coastal areas and six sites near Mount Soledad as future parks. Roads were to be transformed into scenic parkways, bridle trails retained and expanded, and European-style park roundabouts introduced at key intersections.
While the Eliot Plan lacked widespread community support and was never formally adopted, San Diego did implement several of its elements. Among these were the creation of Kellogg Park and the widening and straightening of La Jolla Boulevard.
In 1936, the San Diego County Fair debuted at its new location in Del Mar, with Milton playing a pivotal role as an active member of the Horticulture Committee and in the early planning and development of the now hugely popular Flower Show.
As chairman of the San Diego Board of Park Commissioners for a decade, he was also a strong advocate for planting trees along city streets, personally funding and planting entire blocks of palms in Mission Hills and Old Town.
Milton’s remarkable journey and contributions were marked by innovation, collaboration, and a lifelong commitment to excellence in landscape design. A master of his craft, he shaped and enriched San Diego’s cultural and physical landscape, bridging tradition and innovation, and blending the horticultural legacy of his family with his own personal vision.
A partial list of projects by Milton Sessions
Residential projects in the city of San Diego
- HRB #360 - Milton F. Heller Residence/Casa Marrero, 1927 - 3107 Zola Street
- HRB #534 - Frank H. and Margaret Burton/Milton P. Sessions House, 1933 - 1271 Brookes Terrace
- HRB #388 - The Rolland C. Springer House, 1925 - 2737 28th Street
- HRB #466 - Bowman-Cotton House, 1929 - 2900 Nichols Street
- HRB #478 - Duvall/Lee House, 1913 - 3105 Kalmia Street
- HRB #484 - The Miller House, 1927 - 2020 Orizaba Avenue
- HRB #554 - James Dillon and Lenore Heller Forward/Richard S. Requa-Milton Sessions House, 1927 - 3123 Zola Street
- HRB #671 - Mary Marston/Requa and Jackson House, 1933 - 1008 Cypress Avenue
- HRB #699 - Etta and Lydia Schwieder/Requa and Jackson House, 1926 - 2344 Pine Street
- HRB #800 - Robert Campbell and Belle Anderson Gemmell/Frank Mead/Richard Requa, 1916 - 4476 Hortensia Street
- HRB #866 - H.R. and Olga McClintock/Herbert Palmer & Milton Sessions House, 1927 - 7755 Sierra Mar Drive
- HRB #955 - Willis and Jane Cotton Fletcher House, 1941/Ralph L. Frank, Architect, 1941 - 575 San Gorgonio Street
- HRB #1011 - Guilford H. and Grace Whitney House, 1927 - 4146 Miller Street
- HRB #1071 - George Thomas and Marie Forbes/Richard Requa Model Home, 1929 - 4256 Ridgeway Drive
- Leslie B. Mills House 3188 C Street
Residential projects in the city of Coronado
- William A. Gunn, 1924-25 - 1127 F Avenue
- Dwight J. Peterson, 1929 - 1007 Ocean Blvd.
- Mrs. D. E. Mann, 1926-27 - 1045 Loma Avenue
- E. L. Wallbridge, 1927 - 1038 E Avenue
Commercial projects
- 1935 California-Panama International Exposition, Casa de Tempo
- 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, “Roads of the Pacific,” Ford Building
- Del Mar Fairgrounds & Racetrack, 1938
- Naval Training Center
- Naval Hospital in Balboa Park
- Roosevelt Junior High School
- Memorial Junior High School
- La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club
Further Reading
- SOHO’s Requa’s Architecture in Coronado home tour
- La Jolla Historic Survey Report, 2001-2003 (yet to be processed by the City of San Diego)
Includes valuable references to Sessions’ work
- 4256 Ridgeway Report
Individual historic house designation reports serve as vital repositories of our city’s cultural heritage. For instance, this historic report on a 1929 model home in Kensington Heights, written by Ronald V. May and Dale Ballou May of Legacy 106, Inc., highlights Sessions’ contributions.
- Keeping the Spirit Alive
A Hillcrest garden maintains the historical integrity of its original designer, Milton Sessions, March 26, 2015
Author’s note: On a recent weekend, while sorting through the decades of San Diego ephemera that my husband, Bruce Coons, and I have collected, I unearthed my horticultural history files. Among them were replicas of several issues of the Garden Pointer, fascinating newsletters Milton Sessions produced during the Depression Era as a sales promotion to keep his business name in the public eye. These rediscoveries inspired this article, further spurred by an online search that revealed surprisingly little about Milton beyond historic house designation reports.
I offer this account of the life and career of Milton Sessions as a small tribute to an influential San Diego landscape figure whose contributions deserve broader recognition. I hope that a student or historian will one day delve deeper, shedding new light on his remarkable impact on San Diego’s landscape and history.
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