By Ju (64.12.96.230 - 64.12.96.230) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 02:53 am:

I know that it's been said that the music from 2648 was recorded in the basement, but when I look at that house it appears to me that the studio is an attachment in the house's backyard. The control room appears to me to be the back porch.

If you are on the first floor standing by the control room, the three or four steps down into the studio would not put you into the basement of a house of this type in this area. This is my observation.

Someone also said before that the studio was the garage, I've never bought that. Maybe the rear portion of the studio sits where the garage once was... what's behind the rear of the studio? Does it go all the way to the alley? Is there an alley? Maybe I should hop in the car and go down there and check it out. If the police ask me what am I doing in the alley (?) behind Hitsville USA at 3 A.M. with my tape measure and all I'll just tell them I'm researching for the Yahoo Group!

The studio of 2648 and the attachment (basement?) of the house to the west are attached to each other. When were they attached, in the '59 - '72 era? If so, what was the western attachment used for? When I used to think they were basements I thought to myself, "Wow, they must've busted through one basement wall and tunneled through to get to the next houses' basement. Wow" But now I know (feel) that they are just attachments.

I woke my Sugar Pie Honey Bunch up to ask her what she thought, but she just looked at me kind of funny...

Ok, I will go back to bed (If you think I should go check it out now email me!)

Ju

By Larry (209.245.78.34 - 209.245.78.34) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 03:24 am:

Aside from the historical and *mechanical?* questions, which I don't have the expertise to comment on, I will say, you're one funny Mutha! "Woke my sugar pie honey bunch..."
Lololol yer killin' me man.

By David Meikle (213.122.49.23 - 213.122.49.23) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 03:57 am:

I won't be back on here 'til Monday.

If I remember I will post as many back alley pics as is necessary to get Ju a good nights sleep.

I agree with Larry tho....great post....especially to read first thing in the morning.

By RonS (65.30.225.13 - 65.30.225.13) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 01:04 pm:

Ju,
I can answer your questions. Before the restoration of Hitsville USA, a team of researchers including myself did a complete history of the buildings.

First of all the studio was originally an attached garage and it does go all the way to the alley. (yes there is an alley.) The owner of the house before Berry Gordy was a photographer and he converted the garage into his photo studio. He also turned the back bedroom into his darkroom. He also installed the display window in the front of the building. The other rooms on the first floor were used for offices and a reception. And like Berry Gordy he lived in the apartment upstairs.

When Berry Gordy moved in he converted the photo studio into the recording studio and the darkroom into the control room.

Later the studio was expanded west and north with three isolation rooms.

The basements were not attached but a walkway was built in the sixties between the two buildings linking the first floors. (A walkway was also built that linked the second floors)The first floor walkway extended from the wall of the studio extension to the front porch. Underneath this walkway it was possible to walk from basement to basement. However this area was unfinished and had a dirt floor.

During the 1994-95 renovation we had to rebuild the first floor walkway and the area underneath between the basements was finished and waterproofed to provide storage for the museum. So now the basements are attached by an area used for storage and mechanicals.

The second floor walkway was rebuilt and enclosed to provide passage from one building to the other and additional exhibition space. And the back potion of the first floor walkway was also enclosed to provide egress from the building and an office.

One more point the passageway from the isolation rooms to the back of the building next door was added during the 1994-95 restroration to provide visitor flow.

I hope this helps. I was Operations Manager of the museum from 1991 to 1996.

Ron Swope

By RonS (65.30.225.13 - 65.30.225.13) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 01:19 pm:

One thing I forgot was that everybody calls Studio A the basement because you have to descend the stairs to get to it. But in reality it is not below grade and sits at street and alley level.

Ron Swope

By Bob Olhsson (68.32.101.228 - 68.32.101.228) on Friday, August 30, 2002 - 02:05 pm:

Hi Ron,

Glad to see you here, I think we met at the museum a few years ago.

I've been wondering about the reports of the floor being dirt in the early days and the business about the basement. I can't imagine a successful photo studio with a dirt floor and the location is far too upscale for it to have not been a pretty successful photo studio.

The floor was rough wood and impossible to keep looking clean but it also seemed pretty old. Once or twice a year the occasional rat would get in through the wiring and have everybody roaring with laughter and wisecracks about this "multi-million dollar company."

Could there have been a basement studio that was used before moving into 2648? Mike Valvano told me about helping move everything into 2648 but we can't ask him for the details.

By RonS (65.30.225.13 - 65.30.225.13) on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 12:06 am:

Hi Bob,

Yes I do remember meeting you at the museum. I loved picking the brains of the people who were the backbone of Motown.

I hate to dispel legend but we pulled up a section of the wooden floor and we found a concrete slab. Probably the original garage floor. Also in the outside rear of the studio you can see where concrete blocks had been inserted to close the garage opening.

We assumed that the photographer installed the wooden floor. I believe it was Raynoma Liles Singleton that told us that they roughed up the finish on the floor to help dampen the sound.

We oiled the floor to help perserve it and only used oil soap to clean it, but our restoration expert told us that eventually it may have to be replaced and the new floor roughed up to reproduce the original. We did reproduce the stairs leading down into the studio because they where not stable enough to accommodate the thousands of visitors the studio gets annually. The original stairs where put into storage.

I don't know about a basement studio before Hitsville, but in Berry Gordy's book he does write about buying a two track recorder and building a mixing board to install in the studio.

He writes, "From photo studio, the garage was turned into a recording studio, the first floor became the lobby and the control room."

Ron

By Julian (205.188.208.135 - 205.188.208.135) on Saturday, August 31, 2002 - 02:10 am:

Thanks Ron, that is the sort of explanation that I was looking for!
I'd still like to see those back alley shots!

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Sunday, September 01, 2002 - 02:51 pm:

Will do several tomorrow Julian.

By ed wolfrum (165.121.215.205 - 165.121.215.205) on Sunday, September 01, 2002 - 07:31 pm:

Hello Gang:

I was at Motown during the planning stages for the WEST sub-rooms. Dave Clark was involved then in the design of a "semi-binaural" monitor and talback system to the sub-rooms using EV 636 omni-directional microphones, the remains of which can still be seen hanging from the ceiling.

At that time diffusion panels and some bass trapping was added to the room I believe. This tightened the low end up a bit in the big room. If you listen to some of the earlier raw, unprocessed 3 track masters, the room sounded quite a bit different than later on. This is noticable particularly on raw voices and drums in that space. Personally, I liked the old drum sound better, but preferred the room after the changes for voices. With the move to 8 track there had be be some changes. Mike can probably elaborate more on the reasons for the acoustic changes in the snake pit proper.

Bob's comment on the mice brought back memories. Tom Nixon used to comment that the mouse used to walk up a cable harness and look out an open meter hole at him mixing on a regular basis. He had a name for that silly mouse but I can't remember what he called him. I'll bet his (or her) relatives still are hanging around.

Pax,
Ed

By MEL&THENSOME (195.219.7.13 - 195.219.7.13) on Sunday, September 01, 2002 - 08:33 pm:

David,what on earth were you doing up all those back alleys?MEL.

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Monday, September 02, 2002 - 03:08 pm:

Good question Mel!

Here's the side of the Hitsville Museum entrance at 8.30am one morning last September!

Ron will keep me right on this.

I think the glass window in the middle of the building is the fire exit stairwell.

Behind that is an elevator believe it or not.

By David Meikle (62.252.128.6 - 62.252.128.6) on Monday, September 02, 2002 - 03:15 pm:

This other pic was taken 100 yards east of the above. It shows the side of the original building.

The reason I photographed this lane is because I read somewhere (possibly Joe Hunter's book) that in the very early days a garage at the rear of 2648 was used for recordings.

I'll let Ron describe this pic.

By RonS (65.30.225.13 - 65.30.225.13) on Monday, September 02, 2002 - 05:39 pm:

Great pictures David. Makes me want to go visit. I practically lived there for five years. 8am to 9pm, 6 sometimes 7 days a week.

The first picture shows the building next door to Hitsville. The area from the glass window to the alley was added in 1995 to house an elevator and washrooms. Both of which the museum needed. They were mandated by law to make the museum handicap accessible. This wing to the building also contains the fire stairs. It also allows large groups to go upstairs when the using the elevator is impractical.

The 2nd photo shows the side of Studio A. (doesn't look very big does it?) This was the structure that originally was a garage. The protrusion from the back of the building is the duct work leading from the air conditioner which was installed in the 60's on the garage apron. As you can see its not the basement.

The structure in between the studio and the new wing was added in the mid-sixties to house the sub rooms used for isolation. In the 2nd photo you can see the back door to the sub rooms which is painted Motown blue.

The fenced lot is for employee autos and handicap van parking.

My God, I love these buildings, every square inch from the tech rooms in the basement to the attic echo chambers. Their preservation, renovation, upkeep, and expansion was my life for 5 years. And forgive me, but this was my way of giving back all the pleasure and joy that Motown gave to me.

I hope you all enjoy seeing the back alley of Motown. I certainly did. Thanks David and thanks for the forum.

Ron

By David Meikle (213.122.110.195 - 213.122.110.195) on Tuesday, September 03, 2002 - 03:49 am:

I really can't believe that after so many visits I was oblivious to the fact that the studio was not within the actual building.

When you are in the house it looks so small from front window to control room.

Looking at the extension however the studio also looks so tiny.

What we are looking at is a property with similarities to that of United Sound - for definite.

I asked Mike McLean on the forum some time ago about the existence of a garage in the early days and he said he was unaware of one.

It must have been an expensive project putting the museum together.

Thanks to Julian for posing the question.

Thanks to Ron for giving us the inside information.

By Larry (216.23.183.2 - 216.23.183.2) on Wednesday, September 04, 2002 - 05:00 pm:

Ron,

Thank you so much for your dedication, spirit and information. I can't wait to make my first visit to Hitsville. I'll be thinking of you when I do. Swope? Wow, I have a copy of the film Putney Swope. What a wild-ride film that was. Coolest first 15 minutes of a film there ever was.

By RonS (65.30.225.13 - 65.30.225.13) on Thursday, September 05, 2002 - 01:09 pm:

"I am not going to rock the boat, I'm going to sink the sucker"

- Putney Swope
(no relation)