Showing posts with label Memphis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memphis. Show all posts

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Robert Reed Church



Robert Reed Church (June 18, 1839 – August 29, 1912) was an African-American entrepreneur, businessman and landowner in Memphis, Tennessee who began his rise during the American Civil War. He was the first African-American "millionaire" in the South. His total wealth probably reached $700,000, not a round million. Church built a reputation for great wealth and influence in the business community. He founded Solvent Savings Bank, the first black-owned bank in the city, which extended credit to blacks so they could buy homes and develop businesses. As a philanthropist, Church used his wealth to develop a park, playground, auditorium and other facilities for the black community, who were excluded by state-enacted racial segregation from most such amenities in the city.


Charles B. Church, His Father

The son of a mixed-race mother and white father, Church began working as a steward when his father, a steamboat owner, took him along on his route between Memphis and New Orleans. Robert Church bought his first property in Memphis in 1862. He was well established by 1878-79, the years of devastating yellow fever epidemics which resulted in dramatic depopulation in the city. With property devalued, Church bought numerous businesses as well as undeveloped land, with the long-term view of their appreciation as the city recovered. He built his great wealth on this real estate. He purchased the first $1000 municipal bond to help the city recover from bankruptcy after it was reduced to a Taxing District.

Early Life:

 

His home at the corner of Lance and Lauderdale in Memphis, TN.

Robert Reed Church was born a slave in 1839 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, as the son of Emmeline, a mixed-race woman from Virginia. His mother was a slave and his father was Captain Charles B. Church, a white steamship owner from Virginia who operated along the Mississippi River.
 According to family accounts, Emmeline was the daughter of an enslaved "Malay" Malagasy princess and of a white planter from Lynchburg.
Robert's mother Emmeline died in 1851, when he was 12. His father Captain Church began taking Robert along on his river journeys to and from New Orleans. The youth worked as the steward of the steamship's mess hall, picking up business acumen and contacts, including future Louisiana political leader James Lewis and saving money earned. In 1862 Robert Church bought a bar in Memphis, which he eventually traded for a saloon and billiard room. (He must have been free by then to buy property, and his father may have vouched for him.) In 1860, the black population of the city was 3,000, but it rapidly increased as fugitive slaves fled from rural plantations to Union lines in the occupied city. Church had many customers for his businesses and became influential in the developing black community, which reached 20,000 by 1865.
The next year, postwar tensions in the city erupted in the Memphis Riots of 1866, when a white ethnic Irish mob attacked South Memphis, killing 45 blacks and injuring many more, and destroying houses, churches and businesses. The dramatic demographic changes had resulted in competition among ethnic Irish, who dominated the city's police and fire departments; decommissioned black Union soldiers who had been stationed nearby, and other African Americans. Church was shot and wounded in his saloon during the riot. A total of two whites died.

Real Estate Empire:

By 1878-79 Church had acquired considerable wealth. Familiar with the high death tolls from the 1873 yellow fever epidemic, he moved his family to safety outside the city during the even worse epidemic of 1878, as well as the following year. As the city was depopulated by the flight of 25,000 people during the 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic and death toll of more than 5,000, the land was devalued. Church saw a great opportunity in Memphis real estate and had the resources to buy up property holdings throughout the city. He acquired commercial buildings, some residential housing, and bars in the red-light district, as well as undeveloped land. It is estimated that in later years he was able to collect approximately $6,000 a month in rent from his properties.
Multiple sources refer to Church as the first black millionaire, although it is now generally accepted that his wealth reached about $700,000.  Popular myth holds that Church bought the first $1,000 bond that aided restoration of the city's credit after the epidemic, but city records do not support that.
With his immense wealth, Church funded the development of high-quality facilities for black Memphians, who were excluded by the state law of racial segregation from many white institutions at the time. He developed a public park, a playground, a concert hall, and an auditorium. Church used the properties for related philanthropy: he helped sponsor graduation ceremonies, political rallies, and shows in the parks for the city's African Americans. He also hosted and funded a free annual Thanksgiving meal for the black poor. In 1906, Church, Josiah T. Settle, M. L. Clay, and T. H. Hayes established the Solvent Savings Bank, Memphis's first black bank, and Church served as founding president. He ensured that blacks could gain access to loans for businesses and homes, to advance their lives.


Beale Street First Baptist Church

Personal Life:

Not much is known about Church's personal life. He rarely, if ever, wrote personal correspondence, and never made a public speech, despite his wide popularity and influence in Memphis.
Church married three times. His first wife, Louisa Ayers, was of mixed-race, born into slavery. They both supported education for their two children, a daughter and son. Their daughter Mary Church Terrell was one of the first black American women to earn a college degree. She became a teacher, then a principal, as well as a civil rights activist. In 1909 she was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and in 1896 the first black woman to be appointed to the school board of a major city (Washington, DC).  Church and Louisa divorced.
Secondly he married Anna Wright. They also had a son and daughter. Their son Robert Reed Church, Jr. became a businessman, taking over his father's enterprises. He became politically influential, establishing the Lincoln League in 1916 to work to register black voters, in part by paying their poll taxes. Within a short time, he signed up 10,000 new black voters in Memphis, and worked with E.H. Crump and his machine politics. Church served as an adviser to Republican presidents in the 1920s but declined any political appointments.  Church eventually married a third time, after Anna died.
The senior Church generally chose to stay outside the politics of his era, which enabled him to maintain influence among both white and black Memphians. He was chosen as a delegate for William McKinley to the 1900 Republican Convention.

Death:

Church died August 2, 1912, after a brief illness. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery on the south side of downtown Memphis.



Source: wikipedia.com

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

The Anderson Coward House, Memphis, TN

 Anderson-Coward House.JPG

The Anderson-Coward House, also known as Justine's Restaurant, is a historic mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

History

The mansion was built circa 1852 for Nathaniel Anderson, a planter. It was designed in the Italianate architectural style. It was purchased by H.M. Grosvenor, until it was acquired by William C. Coward as debt settlement. It was passed on to his son, William Holliday Coward. After his death in the early 1900's, it was inherited by his daughter Ida and her husband, Robert O. Johnston, a lawyer and banker.

The mansion was repurposed as a restaurant in 1958.

Source: wikipedia.com

First Baptist Church, Lauderdale, Memphis, TN

First Baptist Church MEMPHIS.JPG

The First Colored Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, also known as First Baptist Church—Lauderdale, was built in 1939 in a vernacular Colonial Revival style, with design attributed to Rev. Thomas O. Fuller.
Front of the church
 
It is a rectangular brick building with brick laid in common bond. It has a limestone fence separating its parking area from the street, which is a c.1890 fence from the former Second Empire-styled Sanford house on the property.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. It was deemed significant for its association with Thomas Oscar Fuller (1867-).

Source: wikipedia.com

Thursday, March 24, 2016

D,Canale And Company



D. Canale & Company was founded in 1866 by Italian-American immigrant Domenico Canale. Domenico began working for his uncle, Abraham Vaccaro, who ran A. Vaccero & Co., a wholesale liquor and wine business. Within 5 years he had saved enough to start his own distributing business. Domenico died in 1919 and the company passed down to his eldest son, John D, and then to John D. Jr. Liquor and Beer sales ended during Prohibition, but once the law was repealed, the company continued with Old Dominick whiskey for a time, but eventually shifted its interest to the distribution of beer and produce only. Through the next several years, D. Canale & Co. became the largest produce distributor in the South.



Domenico 'Dominic' Canale (born in 1843), also known as D. Canale, was an Italian-American immigrant who founded the D. Canale & Co. distributorship in Memphis, Tennessee that became the largest distributor of produce throughout the Southern United States and the primary beer distributor for the Mid-South region.

Domenico "Dominic" Canale

Italian Heritage:

Domenico was from San Pietro di Rovereto, a community within the municipality of Zoagli along the Italian Riviera, approximately 40 km southeast of Genoa. The son of Giovanni Canale and A. Vaccaro, Domenico sailed to America in February 1859 at sixteen years old. He landed in New Orleans after a 65-day voyage, and boarded the steamboat John Simon up the Mississippi River and settled in Memphis, Tennessee.

"Self-Made Man":

D. Canale Storefront on Main Street in Memphis, TN.
Soon after arriving to Memphis in May 1859, Domenico began working for his uncle, who ran a thriving wholesale liquor business. In 1866, Domenico saved up enough money to start up his own produce distribution business, "D. Canale & Co.," which grew considerably throughout the Southern United States as he imported fruits from around the world. The company also packaged and distributed a fine bourbon whiskey called “Old Dominick,” and a number of beers including Pabst Blue Ribbon and Champagne Velvet. It was a natural extension for a produce house to distribute beer, since beer at that time was not pasteurized, and produce houses had refrigeration.
Liquor and beer sales ended during Prohibition, but once the law was repealed, the company shifted its interest to the distribution of beer and produce only. Through the next several years, D. Canale & Co. became the largest produce distributor in the South.
The Southern Historical Association's 1905 book, Notable Men of Tennessee, which profiled prominent Tennesseans at the turn of the 20th Century, observed that "Mr. Canale is what is rightly termed a self-made man, and has won his position in the social and commercial life of Memphis by his industry, his native ability and the exercise of correct business principles." In 1869, D. Canale married Catherine Solari (1850–1923), the sister of Mary Solari, the famous Italian-American painter and first woman admitted to the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. Catherine and Domenico had eight children (5 sons and 3 daughters): John D., Andrew, Anthony, James, Annie (Welsh), Ester (Hoffman), Catherine, and George.[1] Notable Men of Tennessee also remarked that "[Domenico] is prouder of having rightly reared eight children than he is of his splendid success in business."

D. Canale & Co. in the Modern Era:

D. Canale & Co. Modern Storefront
Following Domenico's death in 1919, the D. Canale & Co. passed down to Domenico's eldest son, John D., and then to John D. Canale Jr. In 1956, D. Canale & Co. sold the produce division, and the company entered the institutional food business. In 1965, a restaurant material business was added, and another food broker was acquired, making D. Canale a force in the institutional food business with distribution in a five-state area.
In 1982, the food and beer business was spun off from the parent company and D. Canale Food Services and D. Canale Beverages were formed. John D. Canale III became president of Food Services and Chris W. Canale became Chairman of D. Canale Beverages. In 1999, D. Canale Food Services was sold to Sara Lee.
D. Canale Beverages, with a payroll of over 200 employees, sold over 5 million cases of Anheuser-Busch products annually and had a gross revenue of $80 million in 2009. Over many decades, it was the primary beer distributor for the Mid-South.
In September 2010, D. Canale & Co. sold its beer distributing business to the Hand Family Beverage Company of Clarksville, TN. D. Canale, a staple of the Mid-South economy for 144 years as one of the oldest businesses in Memphis, is now known as Hand Family Beverage dba Budweiser of Memphis.

BirthJan. 17, 1843
DeathJan. 13, 1919

From death certificate:
Male, White, Married, Age 76
Occupation - Merchant
Birthplace - Italy
Father - John Canale, born Italy
Mother's Maiden - Antonette Vaccaro, born Italy
Informant - James Canale
Burial - Calvary

Additional information provided by Rebecca Burnham Kallaher: Head of the wholesale fruit firm of D. Canale & Co. of Memphis, TN. Born at San Pietro de Rovereto, Italy. He arrived in this country in Feb. 1859 at the port of New Orleans and then took steamer to Memphis where he was welcomed by his uncles the Vaccaros. For ten years he worked for wages, saved his money, and in 1869 started in the fruit business. He imported fruits from all parts of the world and did an immense business throughout the all the southern states. He was married in 1869 to Miss Catherine Solari a young lady of Italian parentage from the same district in Italy. He belonged to Business Mens Club, the Merchant's Exchange, the Industrial League and was a member of the Catholic Church. Mr. and Mrs. Canale raised a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters.

Family links:
 Spouse:
  Kate Solari Canale (1850 - 1923)*

 Children:
  John D. Canale (____ - 1934)*
  George A. Canale (____ - 1930)*
  Anthony J Canale (1879 - 1937)*
  Anne Mary Canale Welsh (1888 - 1964)*

*Calculated relationship
 
Burial:
Calvary Cemetery 
Memphis
Shelby County
Tennessee, USA

Created by: Carole McCaig
Record added: Mar 29, 2009 
Find A Grave Memorial# 35311061
  
Source: Wikipedia / Shelby County Archives / Find A Grave

World War II And Korean Memorial



During the late 1950’s, early 1960’s, private citizens of Memphis raised money for a Memorial for those that fought in World War II and the Korean War. After considering many different designs they picked a modern stainless steel fountain to be erected in front of the Front Street Post office [now the University of Memphis Law School]. Besides mixed feelings from the public, the fountain also had other problems. During the cold months a solid sheet of ice would form on the sidewalks from the spray. Soap suds were dumped into it and the bubbles would cover the street and street lights. The homeless would bathe and wash clothes in the fountain and children would jump into the fountain and play in it like it was a kiddy pool. An iron fence was placed around the fountain to stop these actions, but to no avail. The city ordered the fountain removed and taken to the Goldsmith Botanic Gardens where the memorial could be enjoyed. Like a lot of things in Memphis, the fountain was taken down but it either never made it to the gardens or was taken down shortly after. Its current whereabouts are still in question. Today we have Veterans’ Plaza at Overton Park to honor those from Shelby County that fought and died for their country.

Source: Shelby County Archives

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Pink Palace Museum, Memphis

Description Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium Memphis TN cropped.jpg

The Pink Palace is both a house and a museum. In 1922 Clarence Saunders, the father of self-service grocery shopping and founder of Piggly Wiggly, began building a mansion. Memphians called his 36,500-square-foot house, faced with pink Georgia marble, his "Pink Palace," and the name stuck. In 1923 he lost a battle on the New York Stock Exchange, was forced to declare bankruptcy, and never finished his house. The land was sold to developers. The unfinished mansion was donated to the City of Memphis, which turned it into a museum. It opened in March l930 as the Memphis Museum of Natural History and Industrial Arts. The public, though, still called it "the Pink Palace," and in 1967 the museum formally became the Memphis Pink Palace Museum.

... museum is part of a larger family of museums in the pink palace family

Its early exhibits featured a collection of North American game animals, stuffed fish, and the remarkable Boshart collection of eight hundred taxidermied birds. For several decades the museum's collections could best be described as eclectic, as the staff accepted almost any artifact someone offered. Today's museum exhibits focus on the cultural and natural history of the Memphis region, interpreting the history of Memphis, medicine in the Mid-South, and the geology and wildlife populations of the area. There is a replica of the first Piggly Wiggly grocery store, a turn-of-the-century country store, and the hand-carved, automated Clyde Parke Circus.

Memphis Museum, Pink Palace

The mansion has been renovated and contains exhibits on the history of Memphis in the twentieth century and the evolution of the museum. One wing houses the Entrepreneur Hall of Honor, which salutes Memphians who have had an impact on business worldwide. After several expansions, the museum now contains over 170,000 square feet, making it one of the largest in the Southeast. In addition to the permanent collection, there are regularly scheduled traveling exhibits. The Sharpe Planetarium and the Union Planters IMAX Theater also enhance the museum's role and audience.

Memphis Pink Palace Family of Museums Memphis, Tennessee

In addition to the Pink Palace, the Pink Palace Family of Museums includes two nineteenth-century historic properties, the Magevney and Mallory-Neely Houses, and the Lichterman Nature Center in Memphis, as well as the Coon Creek Science Center in McNairy County, a major invertebrate fossil-collecting site and education facility.

Source: tennesseeencyclopedia.net

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Voodoo Village - The Temple



"Voodoo Village" in Memphis Tennessee, somehow got stuck with that name in the sixties. The Village and it's owners, the Harris family, have suffered through countless indignities as a the residents of a grossly misunderstood urban legend. For better or worse, almost everybody who grew up in the Mid-South has a Voodoo Village story. For 50 years, the site has been the focus of harassment, vandalism, and now decay. Unlike the many exploitative clips you can find elsewhere, this film was made with the blessing of the owners. It was made with the help of Washington "Mook" Harris - the caretaker, produced by Perry Walker and directed by Eric Wilson in 2007. Mr. Walker has also published a book of photography of the artworks and the grounds. The goal of this film is to help people understand the true nature of the place - which is actually known as St. Paul's Holiness Temple. The temples and artworks were inspired by Biblical stories and Masonic iconography, not Voodoo. The Temple is the most amazing place in Memphis and a holy place if there ever was one. We hope to help the Harris family preserve the Temple before it turns back into earth, and let people know a little bit of the truth about this wonderful place.

Click Here to watch the video.

External Links:

Voodoo Village 50 Years
The Truth About Voodoo Village
Haunted American Tours 
Voodoo Village

Source: vimeo.com

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Graceland


 
 
Location: 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard (Highway 51 South), Memphis, Tennessee
Coordinates: 35°2′46″N 90°1′23″WCoordinates: 35°2′46″N 90°1′23″W
Area: 13.588 acres (5.499 ha)
Built: 1939
Architect: Furbringer & Ehrman
Architectural style: Colonial Revival
NRHP Reference#: 91001585
Significant dates
Added to NRHP: November 7, 1991
Designated NHL: March 27, 2006
Right side view of Graceland Mansion.
 
Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and 13.8-acre (5.6 ha) estate in Memphis, Tennessee that was home to Elvis Presley. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community about 9 miles (14.5 km) from Downtown and less than four miles (6 km) north of the Mississippi border. It currently serves as a museum. It was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991 and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006. Graceland has become one of the most-visited private homes in America with over 600,000 visitors a year, behind the White House and Biltmore Estate (900,000 visitors per year). The most famous icon of the estate is the front gate, shaped like a book of sheet music, with green colored musical notes, and a sillouette of Elvis, it has come to symbolize the estate more than the mansion itself.


Elvis Presley died at the estate on August 16, 1977. Presley, his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother, are buried there in what is called the Meditation Garden. A memorial gravestone for Presley's stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site.

History

Graceland Farms was originally owned by S.C. Toof, founder of S.C. Toof & Co., a commercial printing firm in Memphis, who was previously the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal. The grounds were named after Toof's daughter, Grace, who inherited the farm. Soon after, the portion of the land designated as Graceland today was given to her nephews and niece. It was Grace Toof's niece, Ruth Moore, who, in 1939 together with her husband Dr. Thomas Moore, built the present mansion in the Colonial Revival style.


Architecture and modifications

The mansion is constructed of tan limestone and consists of twenty-three rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. The entrance way contains four Temple of the Winds columns and two large lions perched on both sides of the portico.




After purchasing the property Presley carried out extensive modifications to suit his needs and tastes, including: a fieldstone wall surrounding the grounds, a wrought-iron music-themed gate, a swimming pool, a racquetball court, and the famous "Jungle Room" which features an indoor waterfall, among other modifications. In February and October 1976, the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio, where Presley recorded the bulk of his final two albums, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee and Moody Blue; these were his final known recordings in a studio setting.



One of Presley's better known modifications was the addition of the Meditation Garden, where he, his parents Gladys and Vernon, and grandmother are buried. A small stone memorializes Elvis' twin brother Jesse Garon who died at birth. The Meditation Garden was opened to the public in 1978. Graceland was officially opened to the public on June 7, 1982.


According to critics such as Albert Goldman, "'nothing in the house is worth a dime." In chapter 1 of his book, Elvis (1981), the author describes Graceland as looking like a brothel: "it appears to have been lifted from some turn-of-the-century bordello down in the French Quarter of New Orleans." And he dismisses the interior as "gaudy," "garish" and "phony," adding that "King Elvis's obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag." When "people who to a real degree shared Elvis Presley’s class background, and whose lives were formed by his music," visited the inside of Graceland, Greil Marcus says in similar terms, they "have returned with one word to describe what they saw: 'Tacky.' Tacky, garish, tasteless — words others translated as white trash." In Graceland: Going Home With Elvis, Karal Ann Marling deals with the decorative arts that makes Elvis' mansion seem a creation as well as a site. Graceland's "act of faith in serial novelty," Marling argues, synthesized the "intense concern for personal style" that made B. B. King notice a teenage Elvis in a pawnshop years before he was famous and the fashion sense informing the "theme clothes" of the '70's — "carapace[s] of sheer, radiant glory." However, during their four-year relationship, Presley's girlfriend Linda Thompson decorated much of Graceland in her own style. Even Presley himself was said to "balk at the extent of her red fur and leopard skin look."




Graceland grew from 10,266 square feet (953.7 m2) when originally bought by Presley to 17,552 square feet (1,630.6 m2) today. Managers of the complex announced a major renovation project that will include a new visitors center, a 500-room convention hotel and high-tech museum displays. The current visitors center, souvenir shops, the 128-room Heartbreak Hotel, and museums will be torn down and replaced with the new facilities. The project will take approximately three years to complete.




Presleys
Graceland sign.jpg
After Elvis Presley began his career he bought a $40,000 home for himself and his family at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis. As his fame grew, especially after his appearances on television, the number of fans that would congregate outside the home multiplied. Presley's neighbors, most of whom were happy to have a celebrity living nearby, soon came to find the constant gathering of fans and journalists a nuisance. After several complaints, Presley decided it was necessary for him to move to a property more suitable.


In early 1957, Presley gave his parents a $100,000 budget, and asked them to find a "farmhouse" type property to purchase. At the time, Graceland was located several miles beyond Memphis's main urban area. In later years Memphis would expand with housing, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties.  After Gladys died in 1958, and Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, the couple lived there for a time. Wife-to-be Priscilla Beaulieu also lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married. After their marriage in Las Vegas on May 1, 1967, Priscilla lived in Graceland five more years until she separated from Presley in late 1972.


According to Mark Crispin Miller, Graceland became for Presley "the home of the organization that was himself, was tended by a large vague clan of Presleys and deputy Presleys, each squandering the vast gratuities which Elvis used to keep his whole world smiling." The author adds that Presley's father Vernon "had a swimming pool in his bedroom", that there "was a jukebox next to the swimming pool, containing Elvis' favorite records" and that the singer himself "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television." Graceland was Lisa Marie Presley's first home after her birth on February 1, 1968 and her childhood home, although her main state of residence was California where she lived with her mother after she divorced Elvis when Lisa was in elementary school. Every year at Christmas time Lisa Marie Presley and all her family would go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie Presley often goes back to Graceland for visits.



When she turned 25, Lisa Marie Presley inherited the estate. In 2005 she sold 85 percent of it.
 



According to Brad Olsen, "Some of the rooms at Graceland testify to the brilliance and quirkiness of Elvis Presley." The TV room in the basement is where he often watched three television sets at once, and was within close reach of a wet bar."

The Jungle Room, Graceland
 
 
 Jungle Room

When he would tour, staying in hotels, "the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, so as to make the same configurations of space as he had at home – the Graceland mansion. His furniture would arrive, and he could unwind after his performances in surroundings which were completely familiar and comforting," the room in question, 'The Jungle Room' being "an example of particularly lurid kitsch."


The Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier, has been noted as a preferred place of Presley in the property, where he often went to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life.
 Elvis Standing In Foyer


 According to the singer's cousin, Billy Smith, Presley spent the night at Graceland with Smith and his wife Jo many times: "we were all three there talking for hours about everything in the world!
 
 Dining Room
 Dining Room

Sometimes he would have a bad dream and come looking for me to talk to, and he would actually fall asleep in our bed with us."

 Parents Bedroom Decorated For Christmas
 His Parents Bedroom

There was some discord between Elvis and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however, and Elaine Dundy said "that Vernon had settled down with Dee where Gladys had once reigned, while Dee herself - when Elvis was away - had taken over the role of mistress of Graceland so thoroughly as to rearrange the furniture and replace the very curtains that Gladys had approved of." This was too much for the singer who still loved his deceased mother. One afternoon, "a van arrived ... and all Dee's household's goods, clothes, 'improvements,' and her own menagerie of pets, were loaded on ... while Vernon, Dee and her three children went by car to a nearby house on Hermitage until they finally settled into a house on Dolan Drive which ran alongside Elvis' estate."
 Elvis's Bedroom
 

 
 
On August 16, 1977, Presley died in his bathroom at Graceland allegedly of a heart attack. However, there are conflicting reports as to the cause of his death. According to the well known Presley biographer Peter Guralnick, the singer "had thrown up after being stricken, apparently while seated on the toilet." The author adds that "drug use was heavily implicated in this unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease...no one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist."

Kitchen



Presley made lists outlining items to be kept in Graceland at all times. Items included:


  • fresh, lean, unfrozen ground meat
  • one case regular Pepsi
  • one case orange drinks
  • rolls (hot rolls - Brown 'n' Serve)
  • at least 6 cans of biscuits
  • hamburger buns
  • pickles
  • potatoes and onions
  • assorted fresh fruits
  • cans of sauerkraut
  • wieners
  • at least three bottles each of milk and Half and Half.
  • thin, lean bacon
  • mustard
  • peanut butter
  • fresh, hand-squeezed cold orange juice
  • banana pudding (to be made fresh nightly)
  • ingredients for meat loaf and sauce
  • brownies (to be made fresh nightly)
  • ice cream - vanilla and chocolate
  • shredded coconut
  • fudge cookies
  • 3 packs each of Spearmint, Doublemint, and Juicy Fruit gum
  • cigars (El Producto Diamond Tips & El Producto Altas)
  • cigarettes
  • Dristan
  • Super Anahist
  • Contac
  • Sucrets (antibiotic red box)
  • Feenamint gum
  • matches (four to five books)

Notable visitors

Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Graceland
 
In 1957, Presley invited Richard Williams and Buzz Cason to visit the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis where Graceland is located "to get a close look at this mansion Elvis had told us about. ... We proceeded to clown around on the front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out."
 
 "In the late 50's, Elvis was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by Nikita Khrushchev, 'to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good'.


On June 30, 2006, when US President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a tour of the mansion, it became one of a few residences on American soil other than an Embassy, the White House, or any of the other Presidential retreats to have hosted a joint-visit by a sitting US president and a head of a foreign government. (Koizumi, who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006, is an avid Elvis Presley fan and even shares Presley's January 8 birthday.)
On August 6, 2010, Prince Albert II, the Principality of Monaco's Head of State, and his fiancée Charlene Wittstock, on a vacation tour of the United States, also toured Graceland. Albert explained: "If you're on a summer holiday, you've got to come at this time of year. I've always wanted to come to Graceland. Charlene and my friends wanted to be here today for this visit, Elvis touched our lives as well and the lives of so many people. We wanted to pay our respects and see what this place was all about."
 
 Living Room

 Living Room
 Living Room
 Living Room

 Living Room
Elvis Relaxing In The Living Room

On May 26, 2013, Sir Paul McCartney visited Graceland, and left a guitar pick on Elvis's grave, and said, "so Elvis can play in heaven."

Tourist destination

 
1st floor, Graceland (not to scale)
 
 
2nd floor, Graceland (not to scale)
Basement, Graceland (not to scale)
 
After Elvis Presley's death in 1977, Vernon Presley served as executor of his estate. Upon his death in 1979, he chose Priscilla to serve as the estate executor for Elvis' only child, Lisa Marie who was only 11. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis' and Priscilla's daughter Lisa Marie's inheritance to only $1 million. Taxes were due on the property, those and other expenses due came to over $500,000. Faced with having to sell Graceland, Priscilla examined other famous houses/museums, and hired a CEO, Jack Soden, to turn Graceland into a moneymaker.
 
 Elvis's Upstairs Office
 Elvis's Upstairs Office
 Elvis's Upstairs Office

Graceland was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Priscilla's gamble paid off, after only a month of opening Graceland's doors the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla Presley became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises, or EPE, stating at that time she would do so until Lisa Marie reached 21 years of age. The enterprise's fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100 million.

While Graceland was open to tours from 1982, the last person to live in the house was Elvis' aunt Delta, on Elvis' invitation after her husband died. She lived in the house until her death in 1993.

 LivingRoom
 Racquetball Room
 Racquetball Room

An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis' grave is held on the anniversary of his death. The largest gathering assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002. One estimate was of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain.

 Graceland's Gates at the Guardhouse
 Graceland's Gates
 Elvis Standing At The Gates To Graceland

The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had the biggest crowd in Memphis for an Elvis Week. At this time several hundred media groups from around the world were present and the event gained its greatest media publicity as an estimated 50,000 fans visited the city.
 Media, TV Room
 Bedroom
 Gladys And Elvis and Her Pearls
 
Vernon's Office
 For many of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Graceland each year, the visit takes on a quasi-religious perspective. They may plan for years to journey to the home of the ‘King’ of rock and roll. On site, headphones narrate the salient events of Elvis’s life and introduce the relics that adorn the rooms and corridors. The rhetorical mode is hagiographic, celebrating the life of an extraordinary man, emphasizing his generosity, his kindness and good fellowship, how he was at once a poor boy who made good, an extraordinary musical talent, a sinner and substance abuser, and a religious man devoted to the Gospel and its music. At the meditation garden, containing Elvis’s grave, some visitors pray, kneel, or quietly sing one of Elvis’s favorite hymns. The brick wall that encloses the mansion's grounds is covered with graffiti that express an admiration for the singer as well as petitions for help and thanks for favors granted.


 
The Graceland grounds include a museum containing many Elvis artifacts, like some of his famous Vegas jumpsuits, awards, gold records, the Lisa Marie jetliner, and Elvis' extensive auto collection.

 Bedroom In The Plane
 Elvis Presley Auto Museum Across The Street

Recently Sirius Satellite Radio installed an all-Elvis Presley channel on the grounds. The service's subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Two new attractions have been added, Private Presley and the `68 Special exhibits; these can be found across the street on the plaza. The fieldstone wall that Presley installed is still there, and has several years' worth of graffiti from visitors, who simply refer to it as "the wall".

 Elvis Riding A Horse At Graceland
 A Young Elvis At Graceland

Tours of the museums at Graceland are available, though no flash photography or video cameras are allowed inside. There is an audio tour of the Graceland mansion. The upper floor is not open to visitors out of respect for the Presley family and partially to avoid any improper focus on the bathroom which was the site of his death. The upper floor, which also contains Elvis' bedroom, has been untouched since the day Elvis died and is rarely seen by non-family members. Visitors park across the street, boarding shuttle buses to begin the tour of Graceland. Attendants issue headphones, and tourists are individually snapped by a souvenir photographer in front of a painted wall with Graceland's famous music gates. Tour buses drive across Elvis Presley Blvd. through the smallish Music gates. Down the long winding drive the bus stops in front of stone lions that stand watch at the wide red brick front steps. It was behind these lions that over 3500 of Elvis' mourning fans passed by to see his body in its casket. The house is much bigger than expected, photos being of the main part only. A tour guide stands at the closed doors to give a brief history of Graceland starting with the woman (Grace) it was named for and concluding with the fact that Elvis bought Graceland when he was only 22 years old. Finally the door opens to allow entry through the front door where, almost directly overhead, perhaps forever unseen by the public, is where Elvis died, on his bathroom floor.
The Living Room, Graceland
 
"The first shock an Elvis fan experiences upon visiting Graceland is that the mansion is only barely set back from the road" and that through its gates one can see a shopping center. Upon entering Graceland, the white staircase, filled with reflective mirrors, is directly in front. To the right is the Living Room with the adjoining Music Room, the first room to be presented on the tour. There are guard rails up prohibiting entry to the Living Room and only part of the Music Room can be seen, hidden behind a doorway framed by vivid large peacocks set in stained glass. In this doorway, in front of the stained glass, Elvis' casket was placed for the funeral held in his home. Visible in the Music Room is a black baby grand piano and an old 1950's style TV. The Living Room contains a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) white sofa against the wall overlooking Graceland's front yard. To the left is a white fireplace. The painting that was Elvis' last Christmas present from his father, Vernon, hangs in this room. Also displayed are photographs of Elvis' parents Vernon and Gladys, Elvis and Lisa Marie. These rooms are then followed with a walk past the grand staircase to Elvis' parents' room.



In Elvis' parents' bedroom, white is the predominant color. A velvet-looking dark purple bedspread drapes onto the floor at the foot of the queen size bed. The walls, dresser, bed and carpet are bright white, protected from visitors by a guard rail. To the right is the closet, sealed with clear glass showing four or five of the dresses Gladys wore. To the left is a pink full bathroom, almost obscured from sight because of a velvet rope barrier.
Elvis' Lockheed Jetstar on display near Graceland.
 
Next, the tour takes you into the dining room and the kitchen (which was not open to the public until 1995, as Elvis' aunt Delta used it until her death in 1993) and continues through the basement, where Elvis' media room with its three televisions can be seen. There is also a bar and billiards room. The tour continues upstairs again, through the famous Jungle Room. After the Jungle room, it exits to the backyard, past Lisa Marie's childhood swing set, to a small white building that served as his father's office. Through the office there is a small room containing a scale model of the home where he was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis' shooting range is housed in what used to be an old smokehouse.


Down the sloping lawn, past horses grazing behind neat white fences, visitors enter the "Trophy Room". Originally this space was a sidewalk behind the house that Elvis had enclosed to store his many items of appreciation. Just inside is Elvis' famous gold lamé suit from his early years.
 
In the Trophy Room many walls display records, movie posters, old time memorabilia of lipstick and shoes, even a 1950s Elvis doll. Among items there are the three Grammys Elvis won, Priscilla's wedding dress, Elvis' wedding tuxedo, Lisa Marie's toy chest and baby clothes and the famous hall of Elvis' gold records and awards. The Trophy Room then winds down the halls through a display of his 68 Comeback, featuring his leather suit, his personal copies of his movie scripts, costumes he wore in many of his movies and a few of his trademark jumpsuits. Also in this room are all the awards and distinctions Elvis received and a display of the many canceled checks Elvis wrote to various charities.
Elvis Presley's Convair 880, "Lisa Marie", named after his daughter
 
Once again outside, the tour moves past his still fully functioning stable of horses. Elvis' Racquetball Court is next, now housing a display of Elvis' sequined "jumpsuits". The entrance is reminiscent of entering an old country club, expertly built and expensively furnished in dark leather on the numerous bar chairs and sofas. A fully functional bar is on the right. To the left is a sunken sitting area with the ever present stereo system found throughout Graceland. There is also the dark brown upright piano upon which Elvis played for what were to be his last songs, Willie Nelson's Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain and The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody". Reports conflict about which one was the last song. The sitting area has a floor to ceiling shatter proof window designed to watch the many racquetball games that took place here when Elvis was alive. In the early hours of the morning Elvis died he, his girlfriend Ginger Alden, his first cousin Billy Smith and Billy's wife Jo played a game of racquetball ending the game with the song on the piano before Elvis walked into the main house to wash his hair and go to bed. Today the court has been converted into displays of the majority of Elvis' stage costumes. More costumes are on display across the street in the "Sincerely Elvis" area. Many old vinyl records are hanging in the two story court, including numerous posthumous awards. Big screen TVs are scattered throughout Graceland. In the racquetball court Elvis' movies and recordings of his Las Vegas concerts play continually. Elvis had the swimming pool built after moving to Graceland.
 
Just past the pool area is the Meditation Garden where Elvis, his mother Gladys, his father Vernon and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood Presley lie buried. A separate building across the street houses a car collection, which includes Elvis' Pink Cadillac and not far away his two planes Lisa Marie (a Convair 880) and Hound Dog II (a Lockheed JetStar) are on display.

National historic landmark

Designation of Graceland mansion as a National Historic Landmark in 2006
 
Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991 and designated a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006 Graceland was the first site related to rock and roll to be entered in the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination was prepared and submitted by college student Jennifer Tucker of Memphis.

Recent developments

In early August 2005, Lisa Marie Presley sold 85% of the business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to CKX, Inc., an entertainment company (on whose board of directors Priscilla Presley sits) that also owns 19 Entertainment, creator of the American Idol TV show.
The final resting place of Elvis Presley on the grounds at Graceland.
 
In February 2006, CKX Chairman Bob Sillerman announced plans to turn Graceland into an international tourist destination on a par with the Disney or Universal theme parks, sprucing up the area mansion and doubling or possibly tripling the 600,000 annual visitors to around 2 million a year.


Sillerman’s goal is to enhance the "total fan experience" at Graceland to compel visitors to spend more time and money. The company is working with the Bob Weis, the recently named new CEO of Disney Imagineering based in Orlando, Florida, to improve the tourist area around Graceland, which is located in an economically depressed area of Memphis, while keeping intact the historic home. Graceland officials envision a 3-mile (4.8 km) strip of Elvis Presley Boulevard transformed into a beautiful entertainment district from East Brooks RD all the way down to East Shelby Drive. EPE has bought up over 120 acres (0.49 km2) of land both commercial and residential around the mansion both north and south, everything from apartment complexes, car dealership, a souvenir shop and even some houses in the area to make way for the expansion.


Sillerman, who has been speaking with investors and developers, plans to spend between $250 million to $500 million on redeveloping the area surrounding Graceland. Among his plans are a new luxury hotel of more than 500 rooms and a convention center, an amphitheater for live concerts, restaurants and retail, plus a new 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) visitor's center and museum adjacent to the Graceland mansion. 2009 was set as the target date to begin work on the project but first it has to be approved by the Memphis City Council.


While visitor numbers grew to around 700,000, by 2005, and partly due to the negative impact on US tourism of 9/11, visitor numbers at Graceland had reportedly declined to around 600,000 due to the rough surrounding neighborhood.

In pop culture

  • The title of Paul Simon's album Graceland and the title track was inspired by Elvis' home. The title song, which presents Graceland as a holy place, also won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year a year later. The song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn and later Cher features Graceland prominently. In the second verse of "Walking in Memphis," Marc Cohn references Graceland and the Jungle Room.
  • The film 3000 Miles to Graceland is about a group of criminals who plan to rob a casino during an international Elvis week, and to make it easier, they are all disguised as Elvis impersonators.
  • There is a movie Finding Graceland starring Harvey Keitel with Johnathon Schaech, as Keitel being an impersonator who claims to be the actual real Elvis after Schaech picks him up as a hitch-hiker trying to get a ride to Memphis.
  • In the ABC sitcom Modern Family, Graceland is mentioned in the Season Two episode "Mother Tucker." Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) explains to another character that it is not an amusement park, but in fact the resting place of "The King" (Elvis).
  • While touring across the United States, the band members in the rock music "mockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap gather around Elvis Presley's grave at Graceland and sing a verse of "Heartbreak Hotel" a capella in three-part harmony.
Source: Internet