Elvis Presley's Colonial Revival Memphis mansion, opened as a museum in 1982 and one of the most-visited private homes in the United States — long associated with reports of his ghost in the Jungle Room and upstairs corridors.
3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, TN 38116
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Multiple ticket tiers from mansion-only tours to comprehensive Elvis Experience passes; pricing varies by season and add-ons.
Access
Wheelchair OK
ADA-accessible visitor complex; the mansion's second floor is closed to all visitors as a family request, so the public tour stays on the first floor and grounds.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1939 · Home of Elvis Presley 1957-1977 · National Historic Landmark (2006) · Burial site of Elvis Presley · One of the most-visited private homes in the United States
Graceland was built in 1939 by Dr. Thomas Moore and his wife Ruth on the 13.8-acre farm Ruth had inherited from her aunt, Grace Toof, for whom the property had been informally called 'Graceland.' The two-story Colonial Revival mansion was designed by Memphis architects Furbringer & Ehrman and sat at the end of a long drive on what was then the rural southern edge of Memphis.
Elvis Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957 for approximately $102,500, moving in with his parents Vernon and Gladys Presley. The mansion's now-iconic music gates and the surrounding wall were added in 1957, and Presley over subsequent years expanded the property with the trophy building, racquetball court, meditation garden, and the famous 'Jungle Room' den (originally a screened porch, enclosed and decorated in Polynesian style in the early 1970s).
Presley died at Graceland on August 16, 1977 from cardiac arrest in the upstairs master bathroom. He was 42. He is interred in the Meditation Garden on the property alongside his parents and grandmother; the body of his stillborn twin brother Jesse Garon Presley has a memorial marker beside them.
Following Presley's death the mansion became a place of pilgrimage almost immediately, with fans gathering at the music gates around the clock. Ex-wife Priscilla Presley led the effort to open the property as a museum to ensure its preservation, and Graceland opened for public tours on June 7, 1982. The property is now operated by Elvis Presley Enterprises and welcomes over 600,000 visitors annually.
Graceland was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006 — making it one of only a handful of 20th-century musical-heritage sites to receive that designation. The upstairs of the mansion, including Elvis's bedroom and the bathroom where he died, remains closed to the public as an explicit condition of the family's agreement to open the property.
Sources
Graceland's haunted reputation began circulating among fans and staff almost immediately after Elvis Presley's death in August 1977. According to coverage compiled by Music Times, Wide Open Country, and a number of paranormal-feature outlets, the most commonly reported phenomena cluster around three locations: the Jungle Room, the foyer directly beneath the upstairs master bathroom, and the windows of the closed upstairs floor.
The Jungle Room, Elvis's favorite den in the last years of his life and the room where he recorded portions of his final two albums, is the site most often associated with reports of cold drafts, a strong sensed presence, and faint whispered phrases that visitors and night staff have attributed to him. Per Wide Open Country and Music Times coverage, accounts include guests reporting EVP-style voice captures resembling Elvis's speech patterns.
The foyer beneath the upstairs bathroom is the second most-cited location. According to the Wide Open Country feature, visitors entering this section of the mansion frequently describe an unexpected chill or sense of presence directly below the spot where Presley died on August 16, 1977.
The closed upstairs floor — which Elvis Presley Enterprises has kept off-limits to all visitors at the family's explicit request — has generated decades of fan accounts of seeing a figure resembling Elvis at the upstairs windows, particularly at dusk. Because the floor is genuinely closed and unstaffed, these reports cannot be corroborated by interior observation and remain firmly in the realm of folklore.
Family testimony has occasionally appeared in the paranormal record. Priscilla Presley has publicly stated in multiple interviews that she senses Elvis's presence in the house. Per the Graceland event listing for the Ghost Adventures episode hosted on the property's own site, a Travel Channel paranormal-investigation crew has filmed at the mansion.
Graceland itself does not promote a haunted narrative as part of its public-facing programming, treating the property primarily as a music-heritage museum. The paranormal lore exists alongside, but not within, the official tour experience.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Self-paced iPad audio tour through the first floor of Elvis Presley's mansion including the Jungle Room, dining room, music room, TV room, pool room, and the trophy and racquetball buildings. The upstairs (including Elvis's bedroom and the bathroom where he died) is closed to all visitors at the family's request.
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