A crowd gathers outside Hitsville U.S.A. (the Motown Museum) for one of the last tours of the famous recording studio. Image by Tom Adkinson

DETROIT – The party is winding down at Hitsville U.S.A., otherwise known as the Motown Museum, the humble birthplace of the sound Berry Gordy created through legends such as the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Mary Wells, the Four Tops, and many other stars.

Museum tours end Oct. 1, but it’s more of an intermission than a closure, because rising behind the white house with the blue trim on West Grand Boulevard that contains the historic recording studio of Motown Records is a $75 million showcase museum that officials expect to open in late 2026.

A snapshot of any portion of the museum’s album covers captures famous Motown artists and sometimes unexpected ones, such as Soupy Sales. Image by Tom Adkinson

The next iteration of the museum will be bright and shiny and will feature interactive exhibits, a theater, a modern recording studio, expanded retail space, and community gathering spaces. It's 40,000 square feet will seem huge compared to the cramped spaces where Motown legends recorded, but the story of how the musical sounds of a generation evolved will be saved and enhanced.

The next iteration of the museum will be bright and shiny and will feature interactive exhibits, a theater, a modern recording studio, expanded retail space, and community gathering spaces. It's 40,000 square feet will seem huge compared to the cramped spaces where Motown legends recorded, but the story of how the musical sounds of a generation evolved will be saved and enhanced.

A tour guide primes her skeptical-looking group by telling them they will get to sing in the legendary Motown Records studio. Image by Tom Adkinson

Tours at Hitsville U.S.A. are famous, not just for the story and the music, but for the banter of the tour guides who led groups through the labyrinth created when a house became a business. My guide pointed to some otherwise unimpressive furniture from the 1960s outside the studio and observed that “many famous booties sat in those very chairs.”

Tour stops include the desk where Martha Reeves worked as a receptionist, the kitchen that became recording engineers’ control room, a vending machine that still has Baby Ruth candy bars where Stevie Wonder could buy them (fourth lever from the right) and an instrument-filled space that resonated with scores of famous voices and where Marvin Gaye was a drummer when the Marvelettes recorded “Please, Mr. Postman.” It was the Marvelettes’ first time in a studio. The biggest item in the studio is a Steinway grand piano built in 1877. Paul McCartney paid to have the piano refurbished in 2011.

Sessions for the Supremes and the Temptations are noted on the chalkboard inside the Motown Records cramped engineering booth. Image by Tom Adkinson

A notable architectural adaptation is overhead in a room turned into a display space for scores of album jackets and other artifacts. The adaptation is a hole in the ceiling where microphones were placed to create a reverberation chamber in the attic. Recording techniques got more sophisticated in subsequent decades, but Motown Records made do with what was available.

Michael Jackson, who recorded with the Jackson 5 at Motown Records, donated one of his sequined gloves to the museum.Image by Tom Adkinson

The collection of album covers of music recorded here produces a sensory overload, and they will be used to great effect in the new facility. One snapshot illustrates a significant variety: Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Edwin Starr, Rare Earth, and Soupy Sales. Soupy Sales? Yes, that Soupy Sales, who certainly was no Motown star, but the Motown Records studio was in constant use from 1959 to 1972, and recording time was a commodity to be sold.

Expect a Hitsville U.S.A. tour trick to continue in the new museum. As the tour ends, the guide generates a friendly vibe in the studio by inviting everyone to sing part of the Temptations’ “My Girl” and then winks and invites the group to the gift shop while she sings the Miracles’ “Shop Around.”


Trip-planning resources: MotownMuseum.org and VisitDetroit.com

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at Amazon.com.)