When did Elvis Presley buy Graceland? What to know about the Tennessee property

Elvis purchased Graceland — the house, the barn and its 13.8 acres of land — on March 19, 1957, for $102,500. The home's Memphis, Tennessee, location was relatively isolated and rural, unlike Elvis' previous address in East Memphis.

Elvis immediately began adding to the mansion, expanding the house to 17,552 square feet and 23 rooms. The familiar pink Alabama fieldstone wall that fronts the property was erected in 1957, to protect Presley's privacy and discourage trespassing fans.

Built and erected by the Tennessee Fabricating Co. and Memphis' Dillard Door Co. at a total cost of about $2,700, the famous custom-built gates of Graceland — a "special double drive way gate," to quote the work order — were installed on April 22, 1957. With their stylized representations of a guitar-strumming Elvis set against a pattern of musical staffs and notes, the gates suggest the entryway to a musical heaven. (The gates were restored in 1990 by the National Ornamental Metal Museum.)

The ornamental stained-glass peacocks that flank the open doorway between the living room and the music room were added by the Laukhuff Stained Glass Company of Memphis, Tennessee in 1974. 

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Also in 1974, Elvis remodeled two basement hang-out rooms. Painted and decorated in yellow and black, the "TV Room" is notable for the three television sets built into the south wall, so Elvis could watch all three commercial networks at once. Even more challenging to the eyeballs is the "Pool Room," its claustrophobic interior dominated by a central pool table and its walls and low ceiling covered in close to 400 yards of vividly multi-colored pleated fabric.

How long did Elvis Presley live at Graceland?

Elvis Presley lived at Graceland for more than 20 years — from its purchase in the spring of 1957 until his death in the summer of 1977.

During those years, Elvis also spent plenty of time away — in the Army in Germany, at various homes in and around Hollywood while making movies in the 1960s, in Las Vegas where he performed residencies in the late ’60s and early '70s, and in Palm Springs, California, where he also maintained a residence.

Earlier this year, Graceland was the target of an attempted foreclosure auction due to an alleged loan taken out by Lisa Marie Presley from the mysterious Naussany Investments and Private Lending. A lawsuit filed by Graceland owner Riley Keough, Elvis' granddaughter, claimed the foreclosure attempt was a fraud and that documents had been falsified.

In May, a Memphis, Tennessee, judge ruled that an auction of Elvis Presley’s iconic Graceland estate could not proceed.

Contributing: Neil Strebig, Memphis Commercial Appeal