Motown Museum Brings Hitsville Tours Back Before Its 2027 Expansion
Originally published by AllHipHop Read the original
Motown Museum is reopening the little Detroit house that helped change American music before its much larger expansion opens.
Public tours of Hitsville U.S.A. resume December 17, according to the museum’s reopening announcement.
Visitors have been unable to take the house tour since January while preservation work and construction continued across the property.
That means a return to the building where Berry Gordy established Motown Records in 1959. The address on West Grand Boulevard became a recording home for Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and other artists whose records traveled far beyond Detroit.
The restored tour will also introduce “Hello Detroit,” a permanent gallery on the second floor.
It focuses on the city itself and the conditions that helped Motown’s music take shape, giving visitors more to explore beyond the familiar hit records.
The work has included protecting Studio A’s original character after decades of use. Its floors, walls and sound are part of what the museum is trying to preserve while bringing people back inside.
The house’s December return comes ahead of the broader Motown Experience planned for 2027. That $75 million expansion includes a theater, interactive exhibits and additional ways to explore the label’s archives, with the original Hitsville building remaining part of the campus.
The museum has been preserving that history since Esther Gordy Edwards founded it in 1985. Its collection includes costumes, photographs and company artifacts, along with the upstairs living space Gordy and his family used during the label’s early years.
Its visitors have included artists from later generations, too. Ms. Lauryn Hill took a private tour with her family in 2023, a visit the museum celebrated publicly.
Adult admission for the returning tours is $25, with several discounted categories listed at $21.50. Tours last about an hour, and tickets are tied to a specific date and time rather than open-ended admission.
The final guided tour of each operating day starts at 5 P.M.
