Smokey Robinson childhood home

This North End bungalow is where William “Smokey” Robinson grew up — and the block itself is a Motown origin story, because Diana Ross lived just down the same street (with Bettye LaVette across the alley, for good measure). Picture the young man who’d become Motown’s greatest songwriter and eventual vice president sitting on this porch, working out the lines that became “My Girl” for the Temptations and “My Guy” for Mary Wells — songs that have been stuck in all our heads ever since. Smokey’s honeyed tenor and his gift for melody basically defined the tender side of the Motown sound. It’s humbling to stand on an ordinary Detroit street and realize how much beauty walked out these front doors. Pair it with Diana’s place two doors down — they’re a matched set.