- published: 20 Apr 2011
- views: 1107874
Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and 13.8-acre (5.6 ha) estate that was home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. 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).[citation needed]
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 twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site.
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 American "colonial" style mansion.
The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar
I am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the Civil War
I'm going to Graceland Graceland in Memphis Tennessee I'm going to Graceland
Poorboys and pilgrims with families and we are going to Graceland
My traveling companion is nine years old the child of my first marriage
But I've reason to believe we both will be received in Graceland
She comes back to tell me she's gone
As if I didn't know that as if I didn't know my own bed
As if I'd never noticed she way she brushed her hair from her forehead
And she said losing love is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you're blown apart everybody feels the wind blow
I'm going to Graceland Graceland in Memphis Tennessee I'm going to Graceland
Poorboys and pilgrims with families and we are going to Graceland
My traveling companions are ghosts and empty sockets ghosts and empties
But I've reason to believe we both will be received in Graceland
There is a girl in Austin Texas and she calls herself the human trampoline
Sometimes when I'm falling flying tumbling in turmoil I say this is what she means
She means we're bouncing into Graceland
And I see losing love ss like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you're blown apart everybody feels the wind blow
And I'm going to Graceland in Memphis Tennessee I'm going to Graceland
For reasons I cannot explain some part of me wants to see Graceland
And I may be obliged to defend every love every ending
Or maybe there's no obligations now
Maybe I've a reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland