Trimmed-Up for the New Year

If you’ve never been in the Fayette County courthouse atrium, do yourself a favor and go visit one of the most beautiful indoor public gardens anywhere. The growing conditions are so good, in fact, that this fiddle-leaf fig tree (Ficus lyrata) needed a major trim job last week by courthouse groundskeeper Steven Svec, shown above. County Judge Ed Janecka said he got the tree as a gift about 20 years ago and had former courthouse groundskeeper Gene Zouzalik plant it in the atrium. Texas courthouse architect James Riely Gordon designed this 1891 Romanesque Revival courthouse but its inner atrium was enclosed for vaults and office space many years ago. Work to reopen the atrium and return it to its former glory began in June 2003 and was completed in March 2005.