Following the success of “Heartbreak Hotel”, Elvis was able to purchase a single-storey, ranch-style house on Audubon Drive for $29,500 on March 12, 1956. It is in what was then a new residential district on the city’s east side, popular with upper-middle-class white people. Although it was a massive change of living environment for the family, it soon became apparent that the house did not offer enough privacy. Neighbours were frequently disturbed by fans and reporters turning up in the hope of catching a glimpse of Elvis.
So, whilst Elvis was making “Loving You”, he gave his parents a $100,000 budget to buy a farm-style house with surrounding land that could function as a buffer. This resulted in Elvis buying Graceland for $102,500 on March 19, 1957.
Graceland is in the Whitehaven district, nine miles south of the city centre. The mansion was built in 1939 by landowners Thomas and Ruth Moore. The property had been known as Graceland Farms when it was first occupied by Stephen C. Toof, the founder of the oldest printing firm in Memphis. It was named after Toof’s daughter, Grace, who inherited it from her father. Upon her death, the property passed to Grace’s niece Ruth, who then built the mansion known as Graceland today, in the Colonial Revival style.
Although Elvis acquired and sold other properties in his lifetime, particularly during his Hollywood years, Graceland was his principal home and is where he died on August 16, 1977. It is the final resting place of Elvis, his parents, his grandmother, his daughter, Lisa Marie, and his grandson, Benjamin.
Priscilla Presley opened the mansion to the public in 1982, and today it is a major tourist attraction with 650,000 visitors annually. Graceland was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, and became a designated National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006.
