Résumé

Principal, Harriett B. Wimmer, Landscape Architect, San Diego, CA. -1960. In 1961, Wimmer and Yamada, Landscape Architects, operated at at 3601 5th Avenue in San Diego. (See San Diego, California, City Directory, 1961, p. 1327.)

Partner, Wimmer Yamada and Associates, Landscape Architects, San Diego, CA, 1960- c. 1971. (See San Diego, California, City Directory, 1971, p. 976.)

Partner, Wimmer, Yamada and Iwanaga and Associates, Landscape Architects, San Diego, CA, c. 1972-. (See San Diego, California, City Directory, 1972, p. 1177 and San Diego, California, City Directory, 1973, p. 1290.)

College

B.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1922. At Stanford, Harriett Barnhart was the vice-president of her junior class, involved in the junior opera, and was a member of the class plate committee as a senior. She belonged to Pi Beta Phi Sorority. (See the Stanford Quad Yearbook, 1922, n.p.)

Relocation

Harriett Barnhart Wimmer was born on 04/27/1900 in Corning, IA. Corning had been founded in 1852 by members of the Icarian movement, a utopian political group formed by followers of the ideas of French lawyer and political theorist Étienne Cabet (1788-1856). Corning was the longest-lived communal experiment operated by the Icarians, who also established shorter-lived utopian colonies near present-day Denton County, TX, Nauvoo, IL, Cheltenham, MO, and Cloverdale, CA. (The Icarians purchased land from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that had settled in Nauvoo, IL, earlier, but relocated to UT after the 1844 death of the Morman leader, Joseph Smith, Jr., [1805-1844].) The difficulty of mediating disputes led to factionalism within the movement, and periodic splits that drained the manpower and resources of each community.

Between 1900 and 1910, at least, the Barnharts resided on 7th Street in Corning, IA. (See Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Quincy, Adams, Iowa; Roll: 415; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0010 and Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Corning Ward 1, Adams, Iowa; Roll: T624_390; Page: 6a; Enumeration District: 0010; FHL microfilm: 1374403, accessed 09/30/2025.)

Harry Barnhart, Harriett's father, moved the family to San Diego, CA, in 1912, a rapidly-growing city preparing to stage the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. Backers of this fair erected an ensemble of Spanish Colonial Revival building laid out according to Beaux-Arts planning precepts. The fair took advantage of San Diego's semi-tropical climate, enabling the planning of lush and impressive gardens. The Panama-California Exposition took place in Balboa Park (previously known as "City Park,") where the horticulturalist and landscape architect Kate O. Sessions (1857-1940) had leased 30 acres from the city to found her Mission Hills Nursery in 1892. Sessions, above all others, was responsible for the choices of native and imported plants and their arrangement in Balboa Park, a site that strongly influenced a young Harriett Barnhart. (See Carol Greentree, San Diego History.org, The Journal of San Diego History, "Harriett Barnhart Wimmer," vol. 34, no. 3, Summer 1988, accessed 09/30/2025.)

The Barnharts moved into the Hillcrest neighborhood, a streetcar suburb northwest of Downtown San Diego bordering the northwest edge of Balboa Park. IA-born developer William Wesley Whitson (1866-1958) began intensive development of the former George Hill estate into a new tract called "Hillcrest" in 1910, a process of construction that continued for about a decade.

Harriett attended Stanford University between c. 1918 and 1922. The 1920 US Census found her during a vacation in 01/1920 living at home with her parents and sister at 3969 3rd Street in San Diego. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: San Diego, San Diego, California; Roll: T625_131; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 275, accessed 09/30/2025.) The Barnharts resided at 3969 3rd Street for eight years, between 1919 and 1927. (See Carol Greentree, San Diego History.org, The Journal of San Diego History, "Harriett Barnhart Wimmer," vol. 34, no. 3, Summer 1988, accessed 09/30/2025.)

Wimmer resided with her husband John at 410 West Upas Street in San Diego, CA, during the 1959 to 1961 (at least) time span. (See San Diego, California, City Directory, 1959, p. 1097 and San Diego, California, City Directory, 1961, p. 1327.)

Between at least 1971 and 1976, Wimmer resided at 390 San Antonio Avenue, Apartment #8. (See San Diego, California, City Directory, 1971, p. 976, San Diego, California, City Directory, 1973, p. 1290 and San Diego, California, City Directory, 1976, p. 1252.)

She was buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, CA.

Parents

Both of her parents were born in Midwestern states and both sets of her grandparents had come from PA. Her father Harold "Harry" Clinton Barnhart (born 1868 in IA-d. 04/14/1934 in San Diego, CA) worked as a dentist in IA and San Diego.

Harry Barnhart wed Birdie M. Glines (also known as "Bird," born 02/17/1874 in IL-d. 04/26/1957 in San Diego County, CA) on 06/20/1894 in Adams County, IA.

Spouse

She wed John Duhle Wimmer. In 1959, Wimmer worked as a coordinator for the San Diego Board of Education. (See San Diego, California, City Directory, 1959, p. 1097.)