Elvis’s Graceland Walks the Line Between Private Family Home and Big Business

The 2022 release of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis put a renewed spotlight on Graceland, the Memphis, Tennessee, estate where the hugely influential musician lived for 20 years until his 1977 death—but not just because the film rekindled the legacy of the late rock star. The lauded biopic was in the thick of its awards season press push when the sudden death of Elvis’s sole heir, his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, kick-started a messy legal battle over the famed property that put its future up for debate.

Before Graceland was home to the "King of Rock ’n’ Roll," the grounds were part of a 500-acre farm owned by Stephen C. Toof, founder of Memphis’s oldest commercial printing firm. Toof’s daughter, Grace, inherited the property in 1894, and when she died roughly three decades later, the site went to her niece, Memphis socialite Ruth Moore. In 1939, Moore and her husband commissioned local firm Furbringer and Ehrman to build the Colonial Revival–style mansion we know today as Graceland. A 22-year-old Elvis purchased the building and its surrounding 13.8 acres for just north of $100,000 in 1957.

Elvis—whose adventurous style was just as flashy as his iconic dances—was known to redecorate Graceland’s interiors pretty regularly, changing upholstery, carpeting, paint colors, and furniture to match his changing tastes, which were famously eccentric. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, the musician added extra rooms and out-there interior features, including a built-in waterfall in the tiki furniture-filled Jungle Room, which he turned into a makeshift recording studio where some of his major hits were recorded. Interior designer Bill Eubanks helped Elvis overhaul the basement game room based on inspiration from a painting of a 1700s billiards room. (Eubanks reportedly purchased around 350 yards of fabric, which a team of workers spent 10 days bolting, pleating, and hanging to the walls and ceiling.) Elvis also tapped Eubanks to redecorate the TV room with a yellow, navy blue, and white color scheme and a bold lightning bolt motif. It’s said the musician borrowed the idea for the room’s wall-mounted TV sets after hearing about then President Lyndon Johnson’s setup.

Because Elvis’s body was found in the bathroom of Graceland’s primary suite on August 16, 1977, the home’s entire second level has remained closed to the public since it opened as a museum in 1982. As such, the mansion walks a delicate and somewhat tenuous balance between public and private space. (After deciding to open it up to the public to bring in much-needed funds, his ex-wife Priscilla said, "To open up your home was like being robbed.") Even still, Graceland has become the second-most visited house museum in the United States, only second to the White House. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006. A Presley executive told Rolling Stone in 2020 that Graceland is worth upward of $500 million, and the estate is said to take in an estimated $10 million annually.

The actual home itself is, by comparison to the Visitor’s Center and other grounds surrounding it, relatively small, an indication of how much the business of Elvis has expanded outside the confines of the structure (the museum, for one, is larger than the house). The estate hosts several annual events including a January 8 Elvis birthday celebration, as well as an Elvis Week with a candlelight vigil to commemorate the August anniversary of his death. There are also themed exhibits like the Making of Elvis Movie (open through September 4), which showcases behind-the-scenes videos from the 2022 biopic—including the creation of a Graceland replica for the shoot in Australia—as well as drafts of the script, props, set pieces, and costumes worn by the film’s actors. Elvis fans can also pay between $1,200 to  $2,000 to get married on the property at the Chapel in the Woods. Depending on who you talk to, Graceland is either a gaudy amusement park or a meaningful memorial.

Still, the world-famous mansion has remained relatively as it was since "the King" lived there. "Most everything you see at Graceland today is original, except for the tour path carpeting throughout the home," says Alicia Dean, Graceland’s marketing promotions and events specialist. "We’ve added stanchions to keep the public out of the rooms, but all of the artifacts you see are original to the home."

Adding to the personal feeling attached to the property is the fact that Elvis is buried on the Graceland grounds alongside his parents, grandson, and, as of last year, his only daughter, who inherited the property after his death when she was just nine, and took complete ownership of Graceland in 1993 when she turned 25. It was regularly noted that Lisa Marie continued to celebrate the holidays at Graceland with members of the Presley family until her sudden death at the age of 54. Initially, it seemed as though her three daughters had inherited Elvis’s estate, after a 2016 amendment to her will revealed that she removed her mother Priscilla as co-trustee and put her eldest daughter Riley Keough in charge. But Priscilla filed a petition questioning the validity of those documents, starting a months-long legal battle over the estate with her granddaughter. The two reached a settlement last October, making Riley the sole owner of Graceland. Unfortunately for the Presleys, the legal tangles didn’t stop there.

Last September, a mysterious lending company filed court papers claiming that it owned the deed to Graceland after Lisa Marie signed a document putting the estate forward as collateral for a $3.8 million loan (that she didn’t pay back), and announced a foreclosure auction of the property. Keough filed a lawsuit alleging that the claim was based on fake documents. When no one representing the company attended the May court hearing, the judge temporarily halted the auction, citing the need to review more evidence. The business, which was since revealed to be fraudlent, withdrew its claims later that day. (On August 13, a federal grand jury heard testimony about the attempted scam to sell Graceland.)

The push and pull between lucrative landmark and personal property is a core part of Graceland’s character and lore. "Graceland is not just a museum; it was Elvis’s private family home," Dean says. "You get to walk through the same front door that Elvis and Priscilla brought home baby Lisa Marie from the hospital. Graceland was Lisa Marie’s childhood home, filled with memories and stories. We will continue to share those memories with the fans for years to come." But Graceland has become more than a museum or a private family home: it has become, like Elvis’s legacy overall, a big business.

This story was updated on August 14, 2024, to reflect updated information about the settlement between Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough and the Graceland sale fraud scheme.

Top photo courtesy of Graceland © EPE. Graceland and its marks are trademarks of EPE. All Rights Reserved. Elvis Presley™ © 2020 ABG EPE IP LLC

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