Your first glimpse of Graceland is the mansion Elvis Presley bought in 1957 for $102,500, a fortune for a young man earning forty-one dollars a week driving trucks. The white-columned Colonial Revival mansion sits on thirteen acres and became Elvis's sanctuary, his playground, and ultimately his prison. He installed a racquetball court, a shooting range, a barn full of horses, and the legendary Jungle Room with its waterfall and green shag carpet.
Elvis rarely left after the mid-1960s, receiving guests at all hours, watching television, and recording music in the basement. He died here on August 16, 1977, at the age of forty-two. More than 600,000 people visit each year, making it the second most-visited private home in America after the White House.
Elvis grew up dirt poor in Tupelo, Mississippi, came to Memphis as a teenager, and became the defining entertainer of the twentieth century. Graceland is where that improbable, magnificent story ended — and somehow never stopped.