2648 West Grand Boulevard: Esther Gordy Edwards and McCartney's Steinway

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In 1959, 29-year-old Berry Gordy bought a two-story house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, turned the former photography studio in back into Studio A, and lived upstairs while the studio ran about 22 hours a day, pausing only from 8 to 10 a.m. for equipment maintenance. Over roughly seven years Motown spread into seven neighboring houses: Jobete publishing in 1961, executive offices for Berry and his sister Esther in 1962, finance in 1965, and in 1966 an artist development house with Harvey Fuqua, Maurice King, Cholly Atkins and Maxine Powell. By the end of 1966 the company had more than 450 employees and grossed $20 million a year.

Gordy moved to the Boston-Edison district in 1967, bought the Donovan Building and Golden World Records' studio in 1968, and in 1972 moved the company to Los Angeles. Esther Gordy Edwards refused to go. As fans kept knocking on the door of the near-empty house, she and her secretary hung gold records and posters and kept Studio A as it was, and the effort was incorporated as a museum in 1985. Today the museum spans three original houses, and Esther's granddaughter Robin Terry, board chair and CEO, is leading a $50 million expansion.

• After Berry moved out, he left the house to his sister Anna and Marvin Gaye, and the What's Going On cover photo was shot in its yard.
• A later singles compilation counts 104 hits from the 13 Detroit years and 76 from the 20 Los Angeles years.
• In 1988 Michael Jackson donated a black fedora, a studded white glove and $125,000, the net proceeds of his first Michigan show on the Bad tour.
• In 2011 Paul McCartney found the museum's 1877 Steinway grand, acquired with Golden World, unplayable and paid Steinway & Sons to restore it.
• McCartney played the restored piano with Berry Gordy at a charity event in 2012.