Esther Gordy Edwards Centre unveiled as Motown Museum expands Detroit footprint
The Esther Gordy Centre Edwards Centre for Excellence was unveiled during a bright evening of cocktails, dinner and music as about 150 Motown alumni and museum partners gathered at the facility for a first look.
Located at 2550 W. Grand Blvd. — just down the street from the museum's main campus — the two-story building is an impressive multipurpose site, with a 20,000-square-foot first level serving as an extension of Hitsville Next, the museum's creative and educational hub.
For folks who have spent decades experiencing the Motown Museum inside the relatively tight confines of its century-old West Grand Boulevard houses, the roomy new facility feels downright transformational. Friday's launch event was bristling with the energy of a historical museum that has firmly planted its feet in the future.
'To actually have a place for us to create (signifies that) Motown isn't a thing of the past, but is still living and breathing today,' said Mikhaella Norward, winner of the museum's 2019 'Motown Mic' spoken-word competition. 'This is a very special space for us.'
While not open to the public beyond special events, the Edwards center marks the museum's visible, growing footprint along the boulevard. And it comes amid a multibillion-dollar flurry of development in that corridor, including nearby expansion by Henry Ford Health.
More: Motown Museum grows again: New Esther Gordy Edwards Centre houses music, research spaces
Friday's guests got to tour the assortment of new studios and workshop rooms where Hitsville Next's young singers, dancers, poets and summer campers will operate. Each space bears the name of a key behind-the-scenes Motown figure, including etiquette trainer Maxine Powell, producer Harvey Fuqua, songwriter Gwen Gordy and music director Maurice King.
Inside the Cholly Atkins Rehearsal Hall — named for the beloved Motown choreographer — several Hitsville Next performers entertained guests with briskly arranged renditions of Temptations and Four Tops classics.
Monitors stationed throughout the first floor beamed vintage Motown video, while a breakroom was lined with wall-sized reproductions of classic concert posters.
And then there was the spacious main hall, which will host community programming and Motown Museum special events — like the Friday dinner and mini-concert for guests ranging from the Miracles' Claudette Robinson to former U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Upstairs is a research hub, home to the museum's curatorial staff. It eventually will open to visiting scholars.
The spirit of Edwards was a prevailing theme Friday night: Born April 25, 1920, she was an older sister of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, and launched the museum in 1985 at Hitsville, U.S.A., the company's original studio and headquarters.
The refurbished building now named in her honor comes amid a yearlong 40th anniversary celebration of Edwards' efforts.
Distinct from the Motown Museum's ongoing $75 million expansion, the property that became the Edwards center was purchased in 2022 with funding from an anonymous donor. The building had been a longtime home to an upstairs church and a first floor dedicated to television facilities for national broadcasts of services.
The structure was gutted and renovated in a project overseen by museum board member Levi Stubbs III, son of the Four Tops' late lead singer.
Plenty of work remains — from furniture to outdoor signage — but 'we didn't want to let today go by,' museum chairwoman and CEO Robin Terry said of her grandmother's birthday.
Motown: Motown's Tamla Records to return with new artists and 'positive, life-changing music'
'There's something extra special in the air tonight as we open this space,' said Terry. 'All of us are here celebrating Esther Gordy Edwards.'
Some guests had jetted in from L.A., including Kerry Gordy, Iris Gordy and the Miracles' Robinson. Others — like Paul Riser, Pat Cosby, Jackie Hicks, Miller London and members of the Temptations' and Four Tops' families — were familiar figures from Motown's hometown scene.
Stabenow, who retired as a U.S. senator in 2025 after four terms in office, was among those who paid glowing tribute to Edwards.
'I'm thrilled this part of the Motown Museum is lifting her up and all she did,' said Stabenow, who in 2023 helped secure $10 million in federal funding for the nonprofit museum's nearby expansion.
Friday's launch event was fittingly capped by a series of performances from Hitsville Next participants, including Jasmine Terrell, the reigning 'Amplify' competition champ who reprised her winning performance of Teena Marie's 'Square Biz,' along with 2023 winner Drey Skonie, who performed his signature cover of the Miracles' 'Ooo Baby Baby.'
'Motown Mic' champion Urban Legin'd Obasaki galvanized the crowd with a spoken-word piece that tapped Motown and gospel imagery.
Addressing Friday's guests, Terry summed up the role of Hitsville Next in the new facility that proudly bears her grandmother's name:
'The talent of tomorrow exists because of the legacy that exists.'
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Esther Gordy Edwards Centre unveiled at Motown Museum
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