Pioneer Information
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sutermeister studied horticulture at the Missouri Botanical Garden and eventually earned a certificate in theoretical and practical gardening in 1900, becoming one of the first women to successfully carry out her studies at that institute through graduation. Sutermeister soon joined the office of George Kessler and worked on some of his largest commissions in St. Louis, including the landscape improvements for the 1904 World’s Fair and the subsequent Forest Park restoration, as well as the 1911 plan for the River Des Peres Boulevard. After Kessler’s death in 1923, Sutermeister began working at Hare & Hare in Kansas City, Missouri, where as the only woman in the office (aside from clerical staff), she aided in the development of the towns of Excelsior Springs, MO, and Longview, WA; Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth, TX, Hermann Park’s Zoological Garden in Houston, TX, among other projects. Over time, she was one of two women employed as a landscape architect in the office, the other being Huldah Simms. Not only was Sutermeister a skilled practitioner, she also served on the Kansas City Board of Civil Service in 1911 as a Special Examiner for local examinations for municipal Head Gardener and Florist positions. Sutermeister died of pneumonia on April 13, 1929.
