48 | DECEMBER 30 • 2021

ARTS&LIFE
ART

P

aul Adams and Harvey Singer
were business associates before
they became friends. An interest in
art has remained at the core of their rela-
tionship although that interest has been
expressed in different ways.
Adams, drawing since
childhood, was hired as a
graphic artist while still a
senior at Cass Technical High
School and went on to create
watercolor and print images of
legendary spots in the Motor
City. Singer, appreciating art
and demonstrating sales skills,
opened a firm, The Art Department, to
market the signature works of diverse art-
ists he admired.
Singer took notice of Adams’ urban
renderings displayed at art fairs around the
state and accepted responsibility for pitch-
ing them to gallery presenters.
After years of work projects, the two
have collaborated on a donor project —
Singer’s idea. A resident of the Anna and
Meyer Prentis Apartments in Oak Park,
administered by Jewish Senior Life, Singer

thought historical pictures decorating the
lobby would offer welcoming sights to
both occupants and visitors.
Adams provided 17 prints, and Singer
paid for the framing through a fund in
memory of his son, David Aaron Singer,
administered by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit. Among the imag-
es are 1950s-60s renderings of Hudson’s
Department Store, Campus Martius Park
and the Michigan Central Railroad Depot,
where another Adams print, capturing the
back of the structure, went up about two
months ago.
“I’ve started lots of activities at Prentis,
including a weekly movie night, and I
thought this display would bring lots of
pleasure to our residents who grew up in
the city,” said Singer, 80.
“We’re living in a community where
youngsters here are in their 60s so when
they go into the lobby they can look at the
prints and take a nostalgic trip into yester-
day. One picture even moves viewers into
the suburbs to remember the early cruisers
along Woodward.”
Singer, who had his bar mitzvah at what

became Adat Shalom Synagogue, brands
his favorite image as showing buildings
that had filled the border separating

Art exhibit at Prentis showcases 1950s-60s Detroit.
A Visit to Yesteryear

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Paul Adams with his print of
the old J.L. Hudson building in
Detroit.

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Harry
Singer

Artist Paul Adams
with his print of the
old Vernors plant in 1950.

JERRY ZOLYNSKY