Don't Miss the Motown Mansion Estate Sale

The Motown Mansion was originally constructed in 1917 by Nels Michelson, a Danish immigrant who owned a variety of successful lumber and timber companies in Michigan. It was constructed in Italian Renaissance Revival style and the original house was 8,500 square feet. It featured nine bedrooms, five full baths, four fireplaces, and a carriage house large enough to accommodate five cars and house two apartments above it.

In 1925, Leonard Augustus Young purchased the house and renovated the property. He added ornate, carved marble mantelpieces to the fireplaces and installed custom light fixtures and bronze doors in each room. He also added a 4,500 square-feet, athletic building that housed an Olympic-size swimming pool, bowling alley, gymnasium, and billiards room.

Pablo Davis purchased the property in 1964. Davis split the property into two parcels and his friend stayed in the athletic building while he lived in the main house.

Then, in 1969, the property's most famous owner moved in, his name was Berry Gordy. He bought the property after opening his hit-making music company Motown Records. The magical music maker threw lots of huge parties while he lived in the residence, which he retained until 2002 when Cynthia F. Reaves bought it from him. The house had remained virtually unlived in and untouched for over 20 years when she purchased it. So her first priority was to restore it, which she did until its sale for $1.65 million last year. The new owners have decided that they would like to share some of the estate with the world, so they have staged a huge estate sale to take place this week.

The three-day sale will take place this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The auction will feature an array of items including, “The Steinway piano once owned by Gordy and played by the likes of Smokey Robinson and other Motown artists... as well as never before seen Gordy home movies and slides, and a selection of Motown awards”.

The estate sale runs from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Thursday, October 12th, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Friday, October 13th and 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday, October 14th. The auction will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday (doors at 5 p.m.) and you can preview the auction items here.

It's $5 to get inside and check out the estate sale, but it's also a cool chance to see inside of one of Detroit's coolest buildings. So it might be worth the five just take a look around. To learn more about the sale click here. 

~S