In 1959 in this small house west of New Center, Berry Gordy Jr. started Motown. He called his living quarters and his company headquarters Hitsville USA. With Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and other artists and songwriters, Motown evolved into a major entertainment enterprise—Motown Record Corporation, with 450 employees. To accommodate its growing business, which by the mid-1970s had become the largest independent record company in the world, Gordy acquired eight houses on W. Grand Boulevard before moving into offices downtown in 1968. The W. Grand Boulevard houses represent those early-twentieth-century residences built in neighborhoods near downtown and New Center.

In 1985 Esther Gordy Edwards founded the museum to preserve the legacy of the Motown Record Corporation. Hitsville USA was restored to its 1960 appearance.