While I am a HUGE Beatles fan (probably the largest in my not-so-humble opinion), you can’t visit Memphis, Tennessee without thinking of Elvis Presley. And so when my friend Tommy and I started planning out our spring break 2021 trip to Memphis & Louisville, I knew that visiting Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley was in order. (Read a blog post about a previous trip to Louisville here)
The price for a visit isn’t cheap. It cost $75 (adult price) to visit the mansion, situated on 120 acres. For that price you also get to visit the other museums on the grounds. Alternatively, an adult can spend $47 to visit JUST the museums and not the mansion. But why travel all this way and NOT see the infamous home of Elvis Presley. So we bit the bullet and did the whole thing. Again, Tommy and I are not the biggest Elvis fans, and we would both agree this was our favorite part of our trip.
Some fun facts about Elvis and Graceland:
- Graceland was bought by Elvis in 1957, when he was just 22 years old.
- Elvis paid $102,500 for Graceland (an equivalent today of about $900,000).
- After his death in 1977 was taken over by Lisa Marie.
- It has been a museum since June 1982 and was placed on the National Register of historic places in 1991.
- The house was built in 1939 and was over 10,000 ft.². Today it is over 17,500 square feet.
- Elvis kept the house throughout his career and his travels and lived there until his death. In fact, he died in 1977 in the bathroom.
- Elvis added onto the house a lot during his time there, it has a total of 23 rooms including eight bedrooms and bathrooms.
Visiting Graceland during Covid-19
Of course being the time of Covid-19 I have to include the safety protocols at Graceland. Visitors need to buy tickets in advance for a specific time. Upon arrival to the museum and after showing our tickets, we waited in line for an introductory video (with fabulous music featuring- you guessed it, Elvis!). Though there were many people waiting in line for the same period we had chosen, our group was divided up into smaller sections of around 10 people. After the video, our photo was taken for our official Graceland picture. After the photo, we waited for our shuttle that ushered us across the street to the actual mansion.
Throughout the museum there were reminders about wearing your mask, and keeping a full Elvis, or 6 blue suede shoes, away from other visitors. Tommy and I were a bit slow in taking it all in & were able to enjoy the mansion and grounds with virtually no one else around. I felt VERY Covid-comfortable.
Visiting Graceland mansion: the home of Elvis Presley
Did you know that Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, is the second most visited private home after the White House? For the tour of Graceland mansion, visitors are given an iPad for an interactive audio tour. After being given headsets and the iPad, you are greeted by host John Stamos! Did you know that John Stamos’ character on Full House was named Jesse after Elvis’ twin brother? Me neither!
The audio tour has commentary and stories about Elvis and his daughter Lisa Marie. As visitors walk from room to room you are given background and information about each room. While you are not able to visit the upstairs of Graceland, you are free to see the the living room, Elvis’ parents bedroom, the kitchen, TV room, “jungle room”, and billiards room. Outside the mansion you can enter the office, trophy building, racquetball building and meditation garden, which is also where Elvis is buried.
Graceland: Living Room and Elvis’ parent’s room
The first room that you see when you enter the house is the living room with the attached music room that is behind the stained glass door way with images of peacocks. The music room has a baby grand piano and a TV. In fact, most rooms have at least one TV! It seems that Elvis was quite an avid TV watcher. The living room features photographs of his parents Vernon and Gladys.
Elvis’ living room, complete with peacock stained glass and music room beyond. 
Adjacent to the living room is the bedroom that Elvis’s parents lived in including the purple bedspread and wallpapered bathroom that his mother picked out. After Gladys passed away in 1958, his father Vernon continued to live at Graceland until he remarried in 1960. After that, Vernon’s mother Minnie Mae & her daughter Delta occupied the room.
Elvis’ dining room & kitchen
The next room is the dining room. It features black marble flooring, this is where Elvis and his family had all of their meals. It is connected to the kitchen, which still remains exactly the same as when Elvis lived here (in other words, a bit outdated). The kitchen and Elvis’ parents room were not open into to the public until 1995 because they were still being used and occupied by Elvis‘s Aunt Delta.
From the kitchen, visitors are issued downstairs into the basement. To reach it, you descend a stairway that is completely mirrored. Tommy and I had a lot of fun on this staircase waiting for people to clear out of the other rooms.
I noticed when we entered Graceland that there were mirrors on the walls next to the staircase. Elvis had these one-way mirrors installed because he had an open-door policy with his friends. However, he did appreciate his privacy and he wanted to be able to look out without being seen. Out of respect for The King, visitors can not visit his upstairs bedroom during the tour.
Lower level of Graceland: TV & Billiards room
On the lower level, I was immediately in LOVE with the TV room. Yellow is my favorite color and it adorned all the walls. The aptly named TV room is where Elvis had three television sets. Elvis installed these after he learned that President Lyndon Johnson had three of his own, enabling him to watch all the three major networks at once. Elvis was an avid TV watcher and there are 14 TVs throughout Graceland. On the wall behind the couch you’ll see Elvis’s logo of a lightning bolt and clouds with the initials TCB. This was his motto “taking care of business in a flash”. Also in this room is a projection screen that would drop down from the ceiling. Adjoining the room is a wetbar, and mirrors adorn every ceiling.
When visiting Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, probably the most photographed room is the Billiard Room. Here in 1974 Elvis had the walls and ceiling covered with 350 yards of pleated cotton fabric. It took installers 10 days to attach all the fabric. There was enough fabric left over from the walls that Elvis was then able to have his couches upholstered in the same pattern.
The Jungle Room
Back up stairs is where you get to enter the Jungle Room. In the 1960s Elvis enlarged the house and created this room. While it was first a covered patio, the room was changed in the 70s and redecorated to how you see it now. The Jungle room has green shag carpets, Polynesian-inspired carved wood furniture and an indoor waterfall. Elvis really loved it because it reminded him of Hawaii. In 1976 the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio. This is where Elvis recorded the majority of his final two albums.
Other buildings at Graceland- office, racquetball court
Leaving the Graceland mansion, you pass through the carport and then can enter the office area of Vernon Presley. Outside of the office area the playset of Lisa Marie. Vernon, Elvis’ father, was in charge of Elvis’ personal affairs, even responding to all of his fan letters. Inside the office (behind plexiglass) there is a video on repeat with Elvis speaking. The video is a press conference that took place after he returned home from the army in 1960. In the video, Elvis talks about a girl he was dating while he was stationed in Germany (his future wife Priscilla). This space is also where Elvis had an indoor shooting range. This space was later turned into the smokehouse.
Elvis was a huge animal lover! He had almost 14 acres of land for the animals, including chickens, a pet turkey, hogs and horses. He also had exotic animals, but they usually didn’t stick around for long. There are still horses on the property, as you can see from the picture below.
Visitors of Graceland can also visit the the racquetball courts Elvis had added to his property. It’s furnished with dark leather, has a bar, pinball machine and upright piano. There’s a floor to ceiling shatterproof window so that people could watch people playing. This is where Elvis spent his morning before he died, playing a game of racquetball and then the piano for his girlfriend and cousin before retreating to his house.
Trophy Room
Elvis’ trophy building has been updated to tell the story of his personal life. It includes information about his family all the way to his grandparents. There is also a hallway dedicated to information about the renovations Graceland went through throughout the years. It also has Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding attire and toys from Lisa Marie’s childhood. One wall features artwork created by fans, and another room features furniture from various redecorations Graceland went through.
Meditation Garden and Elvis’ final resting place
The meditation garden garden is where Elvis would spend his time reflecting on problems. This is now where Elvis’ parents, grandmother and even the King of Rock & Roll himself are buried. Here there is also a memorial for this twin brother, Jesse, who was stillborn.
Graceland museum spaces
While visiting Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, there is so much to see! Included in your ticket price you are allowed to spend all day wandering around the HUGE museum complex. So after touring the mansion, visitors hop a shuttle back over to the ticket/museum area (the same area where you park and enter the complex. The museum complete includes over 200,000 ft.² of entertainment, exhibits, giftshops and a restaurant.
The first room we entered was a large space dedicated to Elvis’ cars. Elvis Presley had a life-long love affair with motor vehicles. In the room we saw ’50s Cadillacs, including the infamous Pink Cadillac that he eventually gave his mom. Elvis’ most prized cars of the 1970s were purportedly his Stutz Blackhawk’s. Elvis was the first person to own a Stutz Blackhawk.
Another room is titled the “Elvis archives” with memorabilia that Elvis collected (he purportedly never threw anything). Next door to that is an exhibit showing the influence that Elvis had on other celebrities fashion. But my favorite was seeing the multitude of jumpsuits Elvis himself wore. Another room had a HUGE wall with his many gold and platinum records.
Elvis’ planes
Let’s talk about Elvis’ customized airplane: the Lisa Marie. This place is fancier than my house! It has a living room a conference room a bedroom gold plated seatbelts leather covered tables a 24 karat gold fleck sinks. Elvis bought the 1958 Convair 880 in April 1975 and spent more than $800,000 having it remodeled. Visitors can also take a quick look into a smaller plane, the Hound Dog II.
Thanks for reading my blog about visiting Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. It was an amazing visit, and one I definitely recommend to everyone. There was so much to see, you could easily make a whole day of it, and it was well worth the $75 ticket fee. Everywhere we went they were pumping in Elvis music and there were so many times I found myself saying “Oh gosh, I forgot I love this song”. I learned so much about The King and I found the whole space really endearing and fun. Stay tuned to Catching Katie for my next blog post about other things to see and do while visiting Memphis!
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