Long before the tour buses and the crowds, Graceland was simply Elvis Presley’s home.
He bought the Memphis mansion in 1957. Graceland’s own team has put it simply: “When Elvis purchased Graceland in 1957, he didn’t buy it just for himself, but for his family.”
In November 1991, 35 years ago this week, Graceland was added to the National Register of Historic Places. That’s America’s official list of historic places.
It was a big moment for Elvis fans. A house where a rock and roll singer had raised his little girl was now on the same official list as places tied to American history.
And people haven’t stopped coming. As of 2024, Graceland was getting around 600,000 visitors a year.
Elvis’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, knew that house better than anyone. In 2012 she walked Entertainment Tonight through it, and it’s a treat to see the rooms through her eyes.
Lisa Marie gives a tour of Graceland
The National Register was only the start. Years later, Graceland got an even bigger honor.
On March 27, 2006, at a ceremony in Memphis, Graceland was named a National Historic Landmark. The ceremony described it as “our nation’s highest recognition for historic properties.” At the time, fewer than 2,500 historic places in the whole country held that title.
So why Graceland?
Lisa Marie had an answer, and she didn’t overthink it. “This landmark designation comes purely due to the fact that the legendary Elvis Presley called Graceland home.”
That was the reason, plain and simple. In her eyes, the honor belonged to her dad.
She also spoke about what the place meant to her personally. “Graceland is my childhood home and it holds so many great memories of the time I shared there with my father,” she said.
And she made it clear how proud the honor made her feel. “It’s a significant statement about how much my father has meant to the world, and it only makes me prouder of him.”
Lisa Marie was just a little girl when she ran through those halls. This fan video puts views of little Lisa Marie at the house next to the same spots today.
Little Lisa Marie at Graceland, then and now
Her mother, Priscilla Presley, was married to Elvis and lived at Graceland too. She spoke that same day in 2006, and she put the honor in very personal terms.
In 2012, the two of them made a surprise visit back to Graceland together, a mother and daughter returning to the house that held so much of their family’s story.
Lisa Marie and Priscilla’s surprise visit to Graceland
Thirty-five years after it joined America’s list of historic places, Graceland is still drawing people to Memphis by the hundreds of thousands. Most of them come for the music and the legend.
But the family always saw it a little differently. To them, it was where Elvis came home to the people he loved. Priscilla said it best at that 2006 ceremony: “This home was his private corner of the world that he shared with his family and his closest friends.”