Millions of Elvis Presley fans have walked through Graceland.
They can stand inside his living room, see the famous Jungle Room, walk through the TV and pool rooms and visit the Meditation Garden.
But there is one staircase tourists still cannot climb.
The second floor of Graceland remains closed to the public.
And according to Graceland itself, that is exactly how Elvis treated it when he was alive.
Elvis bought Graceland in 1957 and lived there until 1977. While guests regularly entered the downstairs rooms, the upstairs became his private world.
Graceland’s official explanation says the area shown during today’s mansion tour is essentially the part of the house Elvis allowed visitors to see himself.
The second floor was different.
You generally went upstairs only if Elvis invited you.
That makes what is hidden there particularly fascinating.
The upstairs included Elvis’s bedroom, dressing and bathroom area, Lisa Marie’s bedroom and a room used as Elvis’s private office.
What Is Upstairs at Graceland?
When Graceland finally opened for public tours on June 7, 1982, around 3,000 visitors arrived on the first day.
But the upstairs was not included.
More than four decades later, that rule remains in place.
Graceland says Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley believed opening Elvis’s private rooms would be disrespectful and inappropriate, and management agreed.
There is also a practical problem.
The upstairs hallway is small and was never designed to handle thousands of tourists. Graceland says accommodating that many people could require another staircase and substantial alterations to the mansion, something the estate does not want to do.
But the privacy is what has created decades of mystery.
Graceland archivist Angie Marchese has said staff members do enter the upstairs to preserve and maintain it.
Her description makes it sound almost frozen in time.
According to Marchese, Elvis’s bed remains made, personal objects remain in place and even the record on his record player has been preserved as it was left. She described the space as appearing as though Elvis had simply gotten up and walked away.
Graceland also deliberately avoids publishing official photographs of the upstairs rooms, although objects from the area have occasionally been displayed in exhibitions.
That means fans can stand at the bottom of the staircase and look upward.
But that is where their tour ends.
It is an unusual decision for one of the world’s most famous celebrity homes. Graceland has continually expanded its visitor experience since opening in 1982, yet Elvis’s most personal rooms have remained protected.
And perhaps that is part of why the upstairs fascinates people so much.
Almost every public chapter of Elvis Presley’s life has been photographed, filmed or displayed somewhere. But inside Graceland, one part of his world still belongs almost entirely to him.