1034 Audubon Drive

Table Of Content

• Presley died upstairs in his master suite, and it has been preserved exactly as he left it.
• The pool room features fabric-lined walls and ceiling, which took 10 days to install.
• Experience Elvis Presley's Memphis
• Elvis Presley’s Homes: Inside His Most Notable Addresses
• PRESLEY CYCLES
• Tour Graceland Mansion

Gladys grew a vegetable garden in the backyard — corn, tomatoes, purple hull peas — and hung her laundry on a line. Now loaded with money and the ability to do almost whatever he wanted, Elvis began to live the extravagant and curious lifestyle he would later become famous for. It was not a wild, riotous time full of large house parties by any means. But here in 1034 he grew his collection of motor vehicles — Cadillacs, a motorcycle, a three-wheeled German Messerschmitt car. One time a helicopter even landed in the vacant lot next to 1034 to pick him up. This incredible fame allowed the Presleys to not only buy 1034, but also to make a few modifications and improvements.

Presley died upstairs in his master suite, and it has been preserved exactly as he left it.

After your tour, spend the night with us at our AAA Four-Diamond resort hotel, The Guest House at Graceland. After touring the Graceland Mansion, check out the other great parts of the 14-acre estate as you enter Vernon Presley’s business office. While it was Colonel Tom Parker who managed Elvis' career, it was Elvis' father Vernon Presley who managed his personal business. Mr. Presley oversaw all of the details of Elvis' personal finances and the management and staffing on the grounds of Graceland. Outside in front of the office is a swing set Elvis bought in the 1970s for Lisa Marie to enjoy along with her cousins and friends. Explore the personal side of Elvis Presley with an interactive iPad tour of Graceland Mansion, hosted by John Stamos and featuring commentary and stories by Elvis and his daughter, Lisa Marie.

The pool room features fabric-lined walls and ceiling, which took 10 days to install.

Meg Jemison Bartlett and some friends on the street made up a phony charity so that they could go see the inside of the Dixon house and their yard. They asked for donations, and later felt so terrible that they left some money on the doorstep. Christine Mayer Todd remembers running through the Dixon house and yard with a group of kids, but Mr. Dixon was not amused and shot at them with a BB gun.

Experience Elvis Presley's Memphis

1034 Audubon Drive was Elvis Presley’s first purchased home in Memphis. He lived in six other places before that, including stays in Memphis’ public housing projects, but he and his parents had never owned a house for themselves, and certainly never lived anywhere as nice as 1034. In January, 1956, Elvis turned twenty-one and recorded “Heartbreak Hotel” for RCA Victor, the new record company he had signed with in 1955. The record was a huge success and the royalties of this song enabled him to buy 1034 for $40,000 cash.

So the Handwerkers moved, but stayed in touch with a handful of Audubon Drive friends, mostly the ones with whom the children continued to attend school. Dan still visited the neighborhood once the house was again occupied. 1034 Audubon Drive was probably built in late 1952 by its first owner, Howard T. Handwerker, who also designed it. According to his son, Dan Handwerker, because Howard worked for a wood company called Welch Plywood, the house received the best of materials. The house was a small, one-story, ranch style house made of cedar wood on the outside and pecan paneling, mahogany, and oak on the inside — it even had wood shingles.

PRESLEY CYCLES

The next one is a bedroom with three windows facing south and one closet. This is Jeanne’s room, and next to it is Dan’s room, similarly laid out. The eldest child was Daniel (Dan), born in 1942, the only son, followed by daughters Jeanne in 1944, Carol in 1950, and Elaine in 1954.

Every year, fans from around the world flock to Graceland to leave flowers at his grave. Towards the end of his life, Presley spent much of his time holed up in his bedroom upstairs, especially if he was "in pyjamas or unshaven," Alden told The Daily Express. Presley worked with a designer, Bill Eubanks, to come up with the room's concept, the Graceland website states.

More Trip Ideas For True Elvis Fans

This is the group Elvis and his buddies would play with after the boys got home from school in 1956. Elvis was quarterback, and Bill remembers handing off the ball to him. But the children found many other spaces to play besides their front yards. The Dixon property, which now houses an art museum and gardens, is on the east side of Audubon Drive, and north of what was the Butler estate. The Audubon kids made it their business to get into trouble there.

Where Elvis Presley and His Family Members Are Buried at Graceland - PEOPLE

Where Elvis Presley and His Family Members Are Buried at Graceland.

Posted: Mon, 22 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

It was declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site.

One of the many socially prominent families on the street was the Willey’s, at 970 Audubon Drive. Howard W. Willey, Jr. was in the cotton business, as was Frank Doggrell, Sr., who lived at 1000. The walls are largely made of pecan and mahogany wood paneling, and I get the feeling that the house is very dark and very small — but I know it isn’t really small at all. I turn right and find a mini office built-in to the wall with shelves, a magazine stand (which Howard had made especially for the house), and a telephone. I see little Carol run down the hallway, turn, and ram her head into the office corner. She has a crease down the middle of her forehead from where it busts open, and it never completely heals.

According to the Graceland website, visitors are only allowed access to common spaces, including the living room, the kitchen, and the TV room. Spanning 17,552 square feet, the sprawling residence has five sets of staircases, three fireplaces, and a kidney-shaped swimming pool. Although sometimes people drove by the house afterwards, just to see it, the neighborhood went back to how it had been before he and all of his fans came. The former neighbors generally agreed that they talked about it much more long after Elvis moved away. ” But the street itself remained the same type of neighborhood for the next sixty years. The Presleys removed the screened-in porch, expanding it by about fifteen feet and closing it in to be the large back room it is today, with a red carpet and an added turquoise tiled bathroom.

The announcement of her death came hours after her mother Priscilla Presley confirmed she had been rushed to the hospital. Elvis Week, which commemorates the anniversary of Presley's death, takes place between August 9 and August 17, per the museum's website. "Elvis sat at the head of the table because it did give him one of the best views of the TV that's over to the corner on the right," Marchese said during a 2020 Instagram Live on the estate's official account.

“Boss” Crump’s granddaughter, Federal Express founder Frederick W. Smith, and fashion designer Dana Buchman. It was the nicest house the Presleys had ever lived in and the first one they had owned for themselves. Gladys visited with her neighbors, let the children use their pool, and planted a vegetable garden. He carried a boy back to his mother after a brick fell on his head. Sauer also installed a kidney shaped swimming pool and a racquetball court, which is reminiscent of an old country club, furnished in dark leather and a functional bar.

Attached to the wing is an additional one-story stuccoed wing, which was originally a garage that houses up to four cars. The mansion has two chimneys; one on the north side's exterior wall, the second rising through the south side's roof ridge. The central block's front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi and its rear wall is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings. The front facade fenestration on the first floor includes 9x9 double-hung windows set in arched openings with wooden panels above, and 6x6 double-hung windows on the second floor. Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in a small two-room home in Tupelo, Mississippi. The little white house was built by Presley’s father, Vernon, with help from his grandfather and uncle.

This was a time of innocence, gracious southern living and the dawn of pop culture, as we know it today. They would become Elvis’ only true next-door neighbors, since a vacant lot sat on the other side of 1034. Their son Bill was twelve when his lifelong friend and former neighbor Dan Handwerker told him that a singer was moving in next-door. Dan thought he had a song out called “Heartbreak Hotel.” This was "minutes before Rock 'n' Roll." The image on the left is of most of the Handwerker family in front of their redwood screened-in porch.