Elvis Presley's Graceland: A history of The King's beloved Memphis home

Graceland, the iconic Memphis mansion and top tourist attraction that was Elvis Presley's beloved home, is in the news again, with a Missouri lending company claiming it has the right to foreclose on the property due to an unpaid loan.

Naussany Investments and Private Lending claims Graceland was used as collateral in a loan that the late Lisa Marie Presley failed to pay back. Naussany alleges Promenade Trust, which manages the Graceland estate, owes $3.8 million.

The Presley family has filed a lawsuit disputing the claims and says the Naussany documents pertaining to the loan are fraudulent.

Here's a brief primer on what is said to be America's most visited home, after the White House.

Where is Graceland?

The famed estate that was owned by Elvis Presley is in Memphis, Tennessee, at 3734 Elvis Presley Blvd. It features the mansion and the Elvis Presley's Memphis complex, which includes restaurants, shops, exhibit space and The Soundstage at Graceland venue.

What is the origin of Graceland?

The Graceland name predates the mansion. Owner Stephen C. Toof, a Memphis commercial printer, named his "Graceland Farms" property for his daughter, Grace, who inherited the land when her father died in 1894. Grace's niece, Ruth Moore, referred to in newspaper reports as a "socialite" and "musical prodigy," and her husband, Thomas Moore, a doctor, built the Colonial Revival mansion in 1939.

How much did Elvis pay for Graceland?

Elvis purchased Graceland — the house, the barn and the 13.8 acres of land — on March 19, 1957, for $102,500.

What is Elvis' history with Graceland?

The home's Whitehaven location was relatively isolated and rural, unlike Elvis' previous address in East Memphis. Elvis immediately began adding to the mansion, expanding the house to 23 rooms, and adding such famous details as the musical-note metal gates and the pink Alabama fieldstone wall that runs along the street (a street renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard" by the Memphis City Council in 1971). The mansion would be Elvis' Memphis home for 20 years, until his death at 42 on Aug. 16, 1977.

How big is Graceland — what's its square footage?

Elvis expanded the house to 17,552 square feet and 23 rooms.

When did Graceland open to the public?

Elvis' funeral was held at Graceland on Aug. 18, 1977, attracting 10,000 to 25,000 mourners, according to newspaper accounts. Five years later, on June 7, 1982, Graceland was opened to the public. Admission was $5. Now, the mansion attracts about 600,000 visitors a year, from around the world. Many travelers arrive during Elvis Week, which commemorates the anniversary of Elvis' death, and participate in the Candlelight Vigil: a public procession from the street to Elvis' grave in the Meditation Garden, on the south side of the mansion. Other members of Elvis' family are interred in the Garden, including the Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who died Jan. 12, 2023, at age 54. (Lisa Marie's funeral was held at Graceland 10 days later, with testimonials and performances by Axl Rose, Alanis Morissette, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.)

Who owns Graceland?

Under the terms of Elvis' will, Lisa Marie Presley inherited Graceland in 1993, when she turned 25, and was the property's sole owner until her death. Managed by the Promenade Trust, a trust set up by Lisa Marie, the property was inherited by Lisa Marie's daughters, actress/filmmaker Riley Keough, born in 1989, and twins Harper and Finley, born in 2008. A months-long legal battle over the trust — that seemed to pit Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie's mother, against Riley Keough — was settled in November 2023.

Famous trespassers at Graceland

On Nov. 24, 1976, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis' contemporary and onetime rock-and-roll rival, was arrested at about 3 a.m. outside Graceland, after he drove up to the gates in his Lincoln Continental Mark IV and demanded to see Elvis, while "screaming and yelling and waving a Derringer in the air" (according to the testimony of a guard at the gates, as quoted in The Commercial  Appeal). Police confirmed that the Killer's "two-shot .38 caliber Derringer" was loaded (as, apparently, was Lewis).

A less troublesome trespasser was Bruce Springsteen, who, on April 29, 1976, after making his Memphis concert debut at the old Ellis Auditorium, took a taxi to Graceland, and jumped the wall after he saw a light on inside the mansion. Springsteen told the guards who apprehended him that "we played in town that night, and that I made some records," he said, in 1985. "And I even told 'em I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek..." Nevertheless, the Boss was put back out on the street.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Graceland: A history of Elvis Presley's Memphis home