Detroit's Motown Museum Celebrates Expansion, Plans To Restart Tours

DETROIT — Detroit’s Motown Museum welcomes guests to celebrate a new era Saturday, as Hitsville U.S.A shows off its new outdoor plaza.

The party will be held from noon to 5 p.m. on the new granite porch that now stretches from Hitsville's house to four adjoining houses on West Grand Boulevard. There will food trucks, live performances and vendors outside the museum, located at 2648 W. Grand Blvd.

The museum, which has been closed for about a year, will resume giving public tours Sunday, but only to certain parts because the museum's only elevator is still broken. Full tours were expected to resume on Oct. 1.

The celebration comes on the heels after officials and several Motown legends unveiled Monday the first two phases of a $50 million project to keep Hitsville alive and inspire future artists.

Smokey Robinson, Otis Williams and Martha Reeves were among those who attended to show off the museum's expansion. The nearby houses, now connected to the Hitsville house, will eventually become performance venues that include recording studios, interactive exhibits and a hub for education and entrepreneurship.

"Kids who aren't even born yet will be aware of Motown," Robinson told The Associated Press during an interview ahead of the event held near the entrance to the museum. "Some of their parents weren't even born when we started this. But it's a wonderful thing."

A third phase of the project, which hasn't started yet, plans to add more programming space behind the museum. The museum was founded in 1985 by Esther Gordy Edwards, who was a former Motown Records executive and sister of Motown founder, Berry Gordy.

Motown Records was founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy and some of the era's most successful artists recorded music at the Hitsville U.S.A. house. Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Stevie Wonder are just a few artists who passed through the house, recording music that defined an era.