The Egyptian pyramids. Stonehenge. The Mayan temples. The Taj Mahal.
Graceland.
Thirty years ago, a mythic story once hidden behind security gates in a suburb of Memphis was born, one with meanings much larger than the physical edifice itself. On this day in 1982, the gates of Graceland, Elvis Presley's estate in Memphis, Tenn., were opened to the public.
In the years following its christening as the vessel of all things Presley, Graceland, a Georgian colonial-style estate built in 1939 in Whitehaven, Tenn., has become not only a tourist attraction, but the focus of pilgrimages, a holder of stories, a museum and a metaphor.
When Presley bought it in 1957 for $102,500, he gave an interview to the Memphis Press-Scimitar in which he bragged about his acquisition, and its potential: "This is going to be a lot nicer than Red Skelton's house when I get it like I want it," he said, as quoted in "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley," the first book in biographer Peter Guralnick's essential two-volume tome. (His prediction proved accurate; how many classic Paul Simon albums are named after Skelton's home?)
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