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Passion For Pewabic
Metro Detroit Jews maintain a love a air
with a 100-year-old Detroit institution.
CINDY FRENKEL
Special to the Jewish News
I rene Walt had no idea when she
emigrated from South Africa in
•
1961 that she would help rescue
a Detroit institution.
Pewabic Pottery, the Midwest's only
historic pottery, is celebrating its cen-
tennial this year, after enduring tough
times in the 1960s and '70s.
Some of the pottery's most extraor-
dinary tiles enliven several of the
People Mover stations in Detroit.
They were designed by nationally
known artists who came to Pewabic to
produce their designs under an ambi-
tious program dreamed up by Walt
and other supporters, reinvigorating
the Detroit-based pottery in the late
1970s.
Today, Pewabic installations grace
the new McNamara Terminal at
Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and the
pottery's brightly colored orange and
blue tiles greet fans at every entrance
to Comerica Park.
"Pewabic tiles are in every nook and
cranny of so many historic buildings
in the city," says Pewabic's executive
director, Terese A. Ireland.
Installations created from Pewabic
tiles add grandeur and a distinctive
glow to such signature buildings as the
Main Branch of the Detroit Public
Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts,
the Guardian Building and Wayne
State University's Old Main building.
Their fairytale friezes enliven local
schools, and traditional Pewabic tile
can be found in buildings across the
country.
Many in Detroit's Jewish communi-
ty remember living in flourishing city
neighborhoods, in homes graced with
a certain quality that included leaded
glass, gorgeous woodwork and
Pewabic tiles.
Neighborhoods including Boston
Boulevard, Green Acres, the
PASSION on page 52
Top:
Irene Walt stands in
her blue-and-white
Pewabic-tiled
kitchen in
Huntington Woods.
Above: Tile detail.