If you haven’t heard of Warren Lewis, you’ve probably seen his work if you live in the Main Line region, even if you haven’t noticed. For nearly 30 years, Lewis has been the change he has wanted to see in the world.
It all started when he moved to Radnor in 1995 was shocked to see just how disheveled the local train station had become.
Lewis had been awed by the Main Line when he first came to the region. From beautiful houses to towering trees and quiet ambiance, it was where he wanted to spend the rest of his life as a landscaper.
Fresh off a divorce and forced to stare at the dreary mess Radnor Station had become when he left his property, perhaps Lewis felt compelled to clean up externally before he was ready to examine his own situation.
“Right at the top of Radnor Chester Road is the Radnor Train Station and, I said to myself, ‘That looks awful. I can do something to make that look beautiful,” he explains.
Without consulting SEPTA, Radnor Township, or any other governing body, Lewis got to work. He bought plant materials, soil and fertilizer and planted arborvitaes, parrotia and blue atlas cedar trees that still stand at Radnor Train Station to this day, all at his own expense.
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Lewis poured his heart into the project. He had no assurances what he was doing was permitted. At any point, he could have been shut down, but in a world lined with red tape, no one ever tried to stop what was a singularly selfless act.
Today, things aren’t as simple. Though SEPTA management eventually thanked him for his work, regulations are far more codified. Now he’ll approach councils and board members with proposals; if they’re hesitant or require a further level of bureaucracy, he’ll move onto the next.
“It’s completely changed now to do public beautification. It does take that extra step to find out permission, liability, that sort of thing to see if it’s even feasible or not,” Lewis says.
From planting trees adjacent to the Schuylkill Expressway on-ramps to the flower beds at the intersection of Williamson Road and Youngsford Roads in Gladwyne or gardens at the square on 3rd and Bainbridge downtown, Lewis has beautified dozens of locations during his decades of work.
Despite all the commercial, public-facing work he does for his company, Warren Lewis Landscaping, all of these passion projects are entirely anonymous. Occasionally he’ll put up a handmade sign with a token phrase like, “Today is a beautiful day,” or “I did this garden for you,” but never will he include his name. These efforts are bigger than one person.
Lewis doesn’t want compensation or for his name to be bigger than the project. Nevertheless, it’s hard for him to prevent his emotions from overflowing when he is recognized. He’s received calls from motorists who have thanked him for making their day more beautiful, and passersby have left money in jars or given him tips.
“It’s so emotional, when I’ve [done] this sort of thing to bring beauty to the world, because you don’t know how many people you can affect by doing this,” Lewis says tearfully.
These projects aren’t just about making an already brilliant slice of suburbia a little bit more colorful. They’re about bringing joy and light to those who need it most. As Lewis says, it’s impossible to know what those who witness your work are going through themselves.
As he once used his public landscaping projects to bring meaning to a dark chapter of his own life, there’s a thought that by beautifying the world, you can beautify the lives of others.
Related: The Garden Centers and Plant Shops to Visit Around the Main Line
