Few groups have defined the idea of the boy band quite like The Jackson 5. From Gary, Indiana, the brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael Jackson were part of a large family that also included the extraordinary Janet Jackson and La Toya Jackson. Their father, Joe Jackson, managed the group and oversaw their early career, while their mother, Katherine Jackson, put her sewing skills to use to make their iconic costumes. After signing with Motown Records in 1969, they rose quickly with hits including I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save and I'll Be There. By 1970, they became the first pop and R&B act to send their first four singles to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
As their success grew, the family moved from their modest home in Gary to Los Angeles. During this period, a young Michael also spent time under the guidance of Diana Ross, who helped introduce the group to a wider audience and shape his early career. The family later settled at the Hayvenhurst estate in Encino, Los Angeles, which became their long-time home.
The group left Motown in 1975 to sign with Epic Records and reformed as The Jacksons, with Randy joining the lineup. Their run continued into the late 1980s, while Michael’s solo career grew into one of the most influential in music. Interest in their early years has returned with the upcoming biopic Michael, which revisits the environment that shaped him, from the family home in Gary to his time in Los Angeles under Diana Ross’s mentorship. Here, we trace the extraordinary journey of the Jackson 5 through their homes.
Before they were stars
The Jackson family’s first home was in Gary, Indiana, roughly 45 minutes southwest of Chicago, Illinois. In 1950, parents Joe and Katherine Jackson moved into the single-story, two-bedroom bungalow a year after it was built. All of the nine Jackson children were raised at the home; Brandon Jackson, Marlon’s twin brother, died shortly after birth in 1957.
The white Midwestern home would later inspire The Jacksons’s 1989 eponymous album and lead single “2300 Jackson Street.” However, the tiny structure didn’t appear in the music video. It was actually shot at their Encino estate, where Randy, Janet and Michael are pictured with a journalist from Right On! magazine in this 1972 photo above.
Band of brothers
In 1964, their father, Joe, found Tito fiddling with his guitar after a string broke, and he was so impressed he bought Tito his very own. Not long after, Joe formed a trio consisting of Tito, Jermaine and Jackie, with a then five-year-old Michael playing congas, and childhood friends Reynaud Jones and Milford Hite on keyboards and drums. Marlon later replaced Jones and Hite the following year, and the band was renamed The Jackson 5. The five-piece band went on to produce their first track, “Big Boy,” with Gary-based label Steeltown Records.
But their big break wouldn’t come until 1968 when the quintet won an amateur night talent show at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre and received praise from the likes of Bobby Taylor and Diana Ross, who judged the competition. In 1968, The Jackson 5 finally landed an audition at Motown Records. A year later, founder Berry Gordy signed the brothers, shown here posing by the pool in their Encino backyard.
They shoot, they score
By 1969, The Jackson 5 skyrocketed to stardom, scoring their first number one hit, “I Want You Back.” Their debut album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, was flying off the shelves.
After making history as the first pop band to have four number-one singles, it was time for a change in scenery. Joe and the five boys relocated to Los Angeles, initially staying at various places around the city, including several hotels and the homes of Gordy and Ross. Katherine stayed in Gary with their remaining children, Rebbie, Latoya, Janet, and Randy, until they landed a new home.
Family ties
It wouldn’t be long until The Jackson 5 moved into their very own house: a four-bedroom property located in West Hollywood, which they rented with the help of Gordy. However, the Jackson family would only stay at the Mediterranean-style dwelling for three years before leaving in 1971, as the excessive noise of the band’s rehearsals disturbed the neighbours.
Jacksonmania
In the 1970s, the Jackson 5 craze, known as Jacksonmania, was at its peak. “It was like the beginning of a small earthquake: a first tremor felt in the balls of our feet,” Jermaine recalled in his 2011 memoir, You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through a Brother’s Eyes. During the group’s concert in Philadelphia, he recalled being a few hundreds of fans out of an audience of 16,000, rushing to the stage to be closer to them, a moment he credits as the start of the fandom.
Family and (furry) friends
In the meantime, life as pop stars was a nonstop whirlwind. The Jackson 5 embarked on their first US tour in late 1970, nearly selling out stadiums in cities like Boston, Memphis, New York, Detroit, and Chicago. It didn’t stop there; their schedules were stacked until 1972. The boys jetted across the world to embark on a European tour with shows in the Netherlands, Germany, France and England. “The crazy days of the big Jackson 5 tours began right after the successes we had with our records,” Michael wrote in his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk. “I recall most of that time as a period of extreme closeness with my brothers.”
Encino men
Cashing in on the group’s success, Joe and Katherine finally had the means to splurge on a forever home for the entire family. In 1971, the couple paid $140,000, roughly $1.1 million today, for a five-bedroom, seven-bathroom property in the affluent LA neighbourhood of Encino, California. The midcentury-modern mansion, dubbed Hayvenhurst, is shown in the background of this circa-1977 shot.
Moving on, not out
As time went on, most of the brothers moved into homes of their own, like Jackie’s in Westlake Village, California, where they gathered for the photo above. Years into his solo career, in the early 1980s, Michael would buy Hayvenhurst from his father. He snagged a three-bedroom condo in the area around the same time, not wanting to leave his mother behind. The entertainer lived at the compound for 17 years, perfecting his famous moonwalk choreography and recording demos for the albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad at a studio he built inside the estate.
Upgrading the family home
In this 1977 portrait of Janet Jackson, Hayvenhurst, the Jackson family home, is seen in full 1970s glory, with orange and brown accents on the wall. During his residence, Michael made drastic upgrades to the Hayvenhurst estate. The “Billie Jean” singer added a Japanese-inspired koi pond, a movie theater, and housing for the family’s exotic pets, such as peacocks, tigers, lions, ostriches, dogs, a parrot and a chimpanzee named Bubbles. In 1988, he moved out of Hayvenhurst and into the iconic Neverland Ranch.
The band played on
After Michael vacated the Hayvenhurst estate, the property remained in the Jackson family, who used it as lodging and for gatherings. His children, Prince, Paris and Bigi, lived at the home after his death at age 50 in 2009.
The mansion was also used as a set for the 2026 biopic Michael, starring Michael’s nephew and Jermaine’s son, Jaafar Jackson. “Shooting at Hayvenhurst, there were so many things going on in my head while trying to be present,” Jaafar said about the house while filming the movie. “Always on the floor because there’s no furniture in the house at Hayvenhurst…I slept in many different rooms in the house just to feel the energy…Without that, I don’t think my performance would be what it is, honestly.”
