Elvis Presley's Apartment at Lauderdale Courts (former)

The $35-a-month public-housing apartment where teenage Elvis Presley lived from 1949 to 1953, his longest address before Graceland, in Memphis's Lauderdale Courts project. The unit survives, furnished to its early-1950s look, inside today's Uptown Square.

Lauderdale Courts, designed by J. Frazer Smith, opened for occupancy in January 1938 with 449 apartments in 66 brick buildings on some 22 acres between Winchester, Exchange, Third, and Danny Thomas Boulevard.

The curbside marker records that Elvis practiced guitar in the basement, sang on the steps, and volunteered to sing at Recreation Center dances, where Johnny Burnette of the Rock 'n' Roll Trio sometimes refused him.

The project closed as public housing in 2000, faced demolition, and reopened in July 2004 as Uptown Square after a $36M rehabilitation. A November 2002 agreement involving Elvis Presley Enterprises kept the unit's layout intact.

The federal record has called this building Elvis's home since 1996, when the National Register nomination for Lauderdale Courts captioned its final photograph “Elvis's Home (Third & I-40)”.

Residents live here; the exterior and Third Street marker are the public view. The unit opens for $10 tours in Elvis's birthday week (January) and Elvis Week (August), and to overnight guests booking by phone.