Wearing a deep green tee-shirt and a faded out green hat, Leon Lewis was recently hard at work plucking, arranging, misting, spraying and maintaining the lush green garden that lives inside Washoe County’s downtown library, as he has for over two decades during closing hours.
He does without a drip or sprinkler system, all by hand for every single plant.
This wondrous interior oasis has been celebrated in media for years, and Lewis is its unflinching, proud caretaker.
In 2014, a nationwide contest called this lush collection of over a thousand plants the “coolest internal space.” Last year, American Libraries had an article titled Bookend: Lushness in the Library.
It explained how Hewitt C. Wells, the library’s architect, after initially wanting to build the library in a park, settled for a park inside the library. Completed in 1966, despite its ordinary outside presentation, the library quickly won the 1968 Industrial Landscape Award and was later named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
Lewis, himself, has had other occupations ranging from being in the Air Force, to working as a bartender and DJ.
Kia Rastar who shared these photos with Our Town Reno is currently at work on a multimedia documentary about our local gardener’s work inside our prized downtown library.
Our Town Reno reporting, February 2025