Here’s A Very Rare Chance To See The Inside of Kalamazoo’s Gibson Guitar Factory

Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property. These photos came from someone who was working.

The people of Kalamazoo have had the pleasure of living in a city, where many say rock ‘n’ roll was born because the home of the Gibson guitar factory lives within the city. It’s a building we see often, but never really get the chance to explore.

That has changed slightly as a man who was instructed to go inside the guitar factory for his job was able to grab some pictures which is a very rare opportunity to actually see the inside of the building. The building itself was rumored and announced to have renovations done on it, so it could be turned into a hard rock café with a performance area, even being added.

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So...where is it?

Those plans have gone silent and there is no update as to when that’s going to take place, and according to the gentleman who took the photos, Johnny Colla, it seems there is quite a bit of renovation that will need to be done before that can’t even take place:

I'm a Guitar Geek, and there are many questions about certain guitars from the 50's, 60's, 70's that I have. Every year, we lose more of these memories and one day they'll all be gone. [With the cleaning up of] Asbestos alone will take a long time.

So what does the inside of the Gibson Guitar Factory look like today? According to Johnny, the building was built to have 2 more floors added, but they were never done. So while Johnny was walking around, he discovered there are stairways leading up to nowhere. Here are some photos of the inside of the building as of June 2023: