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Hitsville USA


"Hitsville U.S.A." is the nickname given to Motown's first headquarters. A former photographers' studio located at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, approaching the New Center area, it was purchased by Motown founder Berry Gordy in 1959.

It was converted for use as the record label's administrative building and recording studio, which was open 22 hours a day (closing from 8 to 10 a.m. for maintenance). Following mainstream success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Gordy moved the label to Los Angeles and established the Hitsville West studio there, as a part of his focus on television and film production as well as music production.

In 1959, Gordy formed his first label, Tamla Records, and purchased the property that would become Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. studio. The photography studio located in the back of the property was modified into a small recording studio, and the Gordys moved into the second-floor living quarters. Within seven years, Motown would occupy seven additional neighboring houses:

Motown had hired over 450 employees and had a gross income of $20 million by the end of 1966.

In 1967 Berry Gordy purchased what is now known as the Motown mansion, in Detroit's Boston-Edison Historic District, as his home, leaving his previous home to his sister Anna and her then-husband, Marvin Gaye (photos for the cover of his album What's Going On were taken there). In 1968, Gordy purchased the Donovan building, on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Interstate 75, and moved Motown's Detroit offices there (the Donovan building was demolished in January 2006 to provide parking spaces for Super Bowl XL). In the same year Gordy purchased Golden World Records, and its recording studio became Motown's Studio B.


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