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MEMPHIS 1871

The southern area of Whitehaven is seen in this photograph from July 1953. Palmer Road is visible in foreground and U.S. 51 (now Elvis Presley Boulevard) is visible running diagonally at right. Whitehaven High School is at right center. The oval at left center is the football stadium behind Whitehaven High School. Whitehaven Baptist Church is seen at far right center. The photograph is taken looking toward the north.

Graceland is in the extreme top center of the photograph.

 You can see the cluster of blue dots,

which is where Graceland is in this picture

M  e  m  p  h  i  s  L  i  v  e  C  a  m  e  r  a

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D  o   y  o  u   k  n  o  w   t  h  a  t  ?

Mrs. Virginia Grant, the relator (real estate agent) that sold Graceland to
Elvis afterwards wrote a booklet of the transaction.
Here's the short version;
Mrs. Grant accidentally met with Gladys outside one of Memphis' major
department stores, Lowenstein's East, Feb. 11th 1957. When she walked out of
the store she noticed "the most gorgeous pink Cadillac I have ever seen".
After learning that it's Gladys sitting inside "this beautiful vehicle" she
raps on the closed window to get her attention and they start to chat.
Gladys learn that Mrs. Grant is in fact a relator, who remarks, "I heard
that you folks would be interested in finding a good farm". Gladys said this
was untrue but they actually would like to find a few acres with a big house
somewhere out of town. Grant then said that she had a nice seven-acre site.
But as Gladys and Vernon (who was inside the store when Grant talked with
Gladys) was leaving that very day for LA to visit with Elvis they would
instead welcome any referrals when they got back home again. Then on
Saturday the week after Vernon calls her and he wants to see the house she
had talked about. After the party (Grant, Vernon and Gladys) arrives at the
site, Grant detects only a vague interest and writes in her booklet, "I had
made the error of showing them property of a much lesser value than they
expected to buy. Fortunately for me I discovered my mistake immediately...".
Gladys then asks her, "Don't you have anything to show us with a Colonial
home?". Although the Graceland listing was with another relator, and the
fact that Mrs. Grant had never even been in the house, that's what she
suggested, "Oh yes, on Highway 51 South as you approach Whitehaven Plaza,
there is the most beautiful Colonial mansion which a friend of mine has for
sale - it's thirteen beautiful acres too". Gladys wanted to see the house
that very day, and loved it, as did Vernon. By 6 pm. Mrs. Grant had their
offer, contingent on the approval of Elvis, not later than 8 pm. the
following Monday.
When Monday came Elvis showed up early, and slowly walked through Graceland
for the first time and sat down with the piano. He got up and remarked,
"This place sure needs a lot of work done on it".
Mrs. Grant's heart sank.
Then he continued, "This is going to be a lot nicer than Red Skelton's house
when I get it like I want it".
Mrs. Grant's heart soared.
Elvis was ready to sign, and he wanted to close the deal as soon as
possible.

The story was also, as I understand it, well covered in Memphis
Press-Scimitar with daily coverage of the house buying for almost a week.
Elvis told the reporter; "I want the darkest blue there is for my room, with
a mirror that will cover one side of the room. I probably will have a black
bedroom suit, trimmed in white leather, with a white rug". He also said he
intended to have a hi-fi receiver in every room and that he wanted the
entrance hall painted to resemble the sky with clouds on the ceiling and
dozens of tiny lights for stars.
Gladys commented, "I think I'm going to like this new home", while Vernon
complained, "We just had the old place fixed up like we wanted it, now we
have to start all over again...".
Elvis also remarked on the basement bathrooms were marked "Boys" and
"Girls", and that he thought that the first thing the house needed was a
swimming pool on the south side of the house with a large sunken patio
leading up to the pool. He also said that he wanted a six-foot stone fence
across the front and up the sides of the property, (the wall also made it
easy for Gladys to have her chickens again, and to hang out washing behind
Graceland as it was not so easy for fans to grab the clothes with the
fence). Elvis also noted the house had garage place for only four cars...
Elvis and his parents moved into Graceland in late April of 1957.

The Moores & The Presleys at Graceland

In March of 1957 Elvis' parents Vernon and Gladys Presley were looking for a larger and more private home than the one they and Elvis were living in on Audubon Drive. They found Graceland on what was then the outskirts of south Memphis. When Elvis returned from filming "Loving You", he went to see Graceland and also fell in love with it.

They put down a $1,000 deposit on March 19, 1957 and finalized the purchase on March 25th, paying a total of $102,500 for 13.8 acres of land and the 10,000 square foot home. Renovations soon began, including the building of the stone wall around the property and the installation of the musical-themed iron gates. (With Elvis' additions the house has 17,552 square feet of living space under the roof today. This does not include any outbuildings such as Vernon's office or the racquetball building.) Vernon and Gladys, along with Elvis' grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, moved in on May 16, 1957 while Elvis was still in Hollywood filming "Jailhouse Rock".


Elvis purchased the home from Mrs. Ruth Brown Moore. Her grandfather was S.C. Toof, a Memphis businessman and founder of a printing firm established in Memphis in 1864. S.C.'s daughter, Grace Toof Ward, originally purchased 323 acres in Whitehaven in 1894. Grace's mother Mary B. Toof purchased an additional 157 adjoining acres in 1901. This 480 acres of land remained in the family and was undeveloped. It was used for parties and outings. It ran from what then was Hernando Road (today's Elvis Presley Boulevard) east to Millbranch and from Raines Road north to the then S.N. Ford land, which started at about what today is called Winchester Road. In 1939, Ruth Toof Brown, sister to Grace, and her husband Battle Manassas Brown were the owners of the land. (At this writing we do not know what happened to Grace and why she had no heirs.) They divided it up between their three children, Ruth Brown Moore, Stephan Toof Brown and Richard Bates Brown. Richard and his wife sold their 1/3 to Stephen, while Ruth retained her 1/3 which amounted to 158.45 acres in the northernmost section of this land. Ruth Brown Moore and her husband Dr. Thomas D. Moore built Graceland Mansion and named it and the cattle farm they have as Graceland Farms in honor of her Aunt Grace. The architects were Max Furbringer and Merrill Ehrman. The builder was Robert Crouch.

Ruth Brown Moore was a Memphis socialite. She attended Wellesley and Smith College in Massachusetts and traveled abroad. She was a member of historical and antiquities organizations, the Symphony League, book clubs and garden clubs. Dr. Thomas D. Moore was a professor of urology at UT College of Medicine and president of staff at Baptist Memorial Hospital in 1949, as well as head of the urology department at John Gaston Hospital. He was also the first president of the Mid-South Hereford Breeder Association which was organized in 1940. Dr. and Mrs. Moore were married in 1925 and divorced in 1952. They had a daughter, Ruth Moore Cobb, who was a harpist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Mrs. Cobb was about twelve years old when her parents started building Graceland. What is now the living room was her music room and her harp was a prominent feature of that room. What Elvis called the music room was then a sun porch utilizing the french doors on both sides. In the basement, what Elvis turned into the pool room was Mrs. Cobb's library where she studied her school work.

After Dr. and Mrs. Moore divorced, Mrs. Moore allowed a local church group to use her property for gatherings until they could build a church on the adjoining land. (The congregation eventually left that building, which was purchased by Graceland/EPE in the late 1980s and now serves as the company's main corporate offices.) The home had been vacant when Elvis first saw it and he had no problem with the church being next door, which Mrs. Cobb recalled was one of the reasons her mother chose Elvis as the buyer over other offers she had received.

Today the gracious Greek revival house on the hill surrounded by tall stately trees is on an oasis of land along a very busy Memphis street. Graceland and it famous music gates are widely recognized around the world. Graceland was placed on the American National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

1962

August 1965

Memphis tour

Nothing's quite as pretty as  

      Graceland in the morning...

GRACELAND-MEMORIES

 After Elvis passed away

 Vernon moved back into Graceland but he stayed in a room that had been converted from a carport into an apartment on the first floor off of the kitchen area towards the back of the house. It is now used as a display room for Elvis items on the tour. He had lived in a house Elvis bought for him at 1266 Dolan Drive which is the road next to Graceland. There was even a gate in the backyard so Elvis and Vernon could walk to each others homes privately. His Grandmother, Minnie Mae continued to live at Graceland until she passed away in 1980 and his Aunt Delta continued to live at Graceland until she passed away in 1993. The kitchen is now part of the tour as well but it didn't used to be because it was still a working kitchen when Aunt Delta lived there. As far as I know, nobody ever moved into Elvis' room and it has been pretty much kept the same way as it was when Elvis lived there.

At Home(s) with Elvis

Elvis and his family moved quite a bit when he was young. Sometimes when times were especially hard for the family economically, they lived with relatives. It may have been one of the reasons Elvis dearly loved his mansion known as Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.  He and his family had finally found a comfortable, permanent place to live. No matter where he traveled or how much success he enjoyed, Elvis always considered Graceland "home".

Here is a list of Elvis' residences over the years:

• 306 Old Saltillo Road, East Tupelo, MS
  The tiny home that Vernon Presley built with $180 in materials. It was Elvis' birthplace.
• 510 1/2 Maple Street, East Tupelo, MS
  Rented house,  November 1940.
• Pascagoula, MS
  From May to June of 1943 Vernon took work in the ship yards on of Mississippi Gulf coast. The family was so homesick they soon moved back to Tupelo.
• Berry Street, East Tupelo, MS
  The Presley family bought this 4-room house on August 18, 1945 for $2,000, putting $200 down and making payments of $30 month plus 6% interest.
• Commerce Street, Tupelo, MS
  They moved to this address July 18, 1946.  They had no longer been able to make the payments on their home on Berry Street and had been forced to sell it.
• Mulberry Alley, Tupelo, MS
  This home was near the fairgrounds in an area known as Shake Rag.
• 1010 North Green Street, Tupelo, MS
  Documents show this address in September 1947.
• 370 Washington Street, Memphis, TN
  Elvis' first home in Memphis was this rooming house where they paid $11 a week to live.
• 572 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN
  May 14, 1949 - Around this date they move to another rooming house. The rent was $9.50 a week.
• 185 Winchester Street, Apt. # 185, Memphis, TN
  Sept. 20, 1949 Elvis and his family were accepted into this Memphis Housing Authority property called Lauderdale Courts. This two-bedroom apartment cost them $35 a month. In February 1952 they were allowed to sign a new lease with the rent raised to $43 a month. By Nov. 17, 1952 they were evicted because they made too much money to live in assisted housing. The combined family income was $4,133.
• 698 Saffarans Street, Memphis, TN
  Records show the family was living here during January 1953.
• 462 Alabama, Memphis, TN
  By March 1953 the family was living in an apartment in this home for $50 a month.
• 2414 Lamar Ave., Memphis, TN
  In 1955 the family lived here.
• 1414 Getwell, Memphis, TN
  In September 1955 this was their address and they paid $85 a month in rent.
• 1034 Audubon Drive, Memphis, TN
  March 12, 1956 Elvis was making enough money to purchase this home for his family for $29,500 from the Welsh Plywood Corporation.
• 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, TN
  On March 25, 1957 Elvis purchased his beloved Graceland for $102,500 from Mrs. Ruth Brown Moore.  This was his permanent home until he died here on August 16, 1977.

Additional homes during the Graceland years:

• 906 Oak Hill Drive, Killeen, TX
  Home Elvis rented in 1958 during basic training at Ft. Hood, Texas.
• Goethestrasse 14, Bad Nauheim, West Germany
  Home Elvis rented in 1959/60 while serving in the US Army in Germany.
• 525 Perugia Way, Bel Air, CA
  Elvis rented this home twice. September 1960 to November 1961 and January 1963 - 1965.
• 10539 Bellagio Rd., Bel Air, CA
  Elvis rented this home from November 1961 to January 1963.
• 10550 Rocco Place, Bel Air, CA
  Elvis rented this home in February 1966.
• 1174 Hillcrest Ave., Beverly Hills, CA
  Elvis and Priscilla bought this home in November 1967 for $400,000.
• 144 Monovale, Holmby Hills, CA
  Elvis and Priscilla bought this larger home in December 1970 for $339,000.
• 1350 Leadera Circle, Palm Springs, CA
  Elvis leased this home on September 21, 1966
• Camino del Norte, Palm Springs, CA
  Elvis and Priscilla rented this home in April 1968 while looking for one to buy.
• 845 Chino Canyon Rd., Palm Springs, CA
  Elvis and Priscilla bought this home in April 1970 paying $13,187.83 down and signing a mortgage for $85,000.
• 

Right Side of Graceland without swimming pool