On this day in 1957, Elvis bought Graceland! The property was once part of a farm owned by the S.C. Toof family, and was named after a member of the Toof family, Grace. It was the second house Elvis had bought for his parents. The first was in East Memphis, but the neighborhood had become overrun with fans and journalists as Elvis became a superstar. So in the spring of 1957, when he was just 22 years old, Elvis gave his parents a budget of $100,000 and told them to find a farmhouse-like property with plenty of buffer space around it. At the time, Elvis was finishing his second Hollywood movie, Loving You, and his first movie soundtrack. He had 2 studio albums and 48 singles already, and had spent 2 years making nonstop live appearances.
Graceland is just over 17,500 square feet and has 23 rooms, including 8 bedrooms and bathrooms. After buying the house, Elvis spent more than $500,000 on extensive renovations. These included adding a pink fieldstone wall around the property and a wrought-iron front gate shaped like a book of sheet music. He enlarged the home in the mid-60s to create a den known as the Jungle Room. It has an indoor waterfall, hand-carved furniture, and green shag carpeting on the floor and ceiling. In 1976, Elvis turned the room into a recording studio, where he recorded most of his final 2 albums. Other musicians have since recorded in the Jungle Room, including John Cougar Mellencamp, Kid Rock, and Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie.
The second floor of the house is closed to the public. It features Elvis’ bedroom and the bathroom where he died, as well as Lisa Marie’s bedroom and Elvis’ private personal office. One of Elvis’ better-known modifications is the Meditation Garden. That’s where he’s buried, along with his parents, his maternal Grandmother, Lisa Marie, and her son Benjamin.
Graceland opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Today, it attracts more than 650,000 visitors every year, making it the 2nd most-visited home in America after the White House. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, the first rock-n-roll site to be named to both lists. Learn more here.