Graceland is the name of the large white-columned estate that once belonged to Elvis Presley, located at 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It currently serves as a museum that was opened to the public in 1982, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991.
On March 27, 2006, Gale Norton, United States Secretary of the Interior, designated Graceland a National Historic Landmark—joining the White House, the Alamo, Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Dealey Plaza, and Mount Vernon. On June 30, 2006, when US President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a tour of the mansion, it became the only residence on American soil other than an Embassy, the White House, or any of the other Presidential retreats to have hosted a joint-visit by a sitting US president and a head of a foreign government. (Koizumi, who is the longest-lasting Prime Minister in Japanese history, is an avid Elvis Presley fan and even shares Presley's January 8 birthday.) |