Why does the Graceland Mansion tour not include the upstairs area (Elvis’ bedroom, bath, office and wardrobe room, Lisa Marie’s nursery, etc.)?
Tours of the upstairs have not been available up to now and won’t be in the foreseeable future. The part of Graceland we show the world on our tour is the part that Elvis showed anyone who visited him at Graceland. The upstairs was his private area. When Graceland opened, Priscilla and Lisa felt that the upstairs should remain private, that letting everyone go up there would be disrespectful and inappropriate – something the rest of our management wholeheartedly agrees with. Along with these personal feelings is the matter of logistics. With our volume of visitorship we would be required to put in an extra staircase as an exit, we’d have to do some remodeling upstairs as the hallway connecting the rooms is not large enough to accommodate crowds. This would radically alter the house and no one wants to do that. The issue of privacy and respect is also the reason that we do not publish photographs of the upstairs area. However, we do bring items from upstairs into our exhibits.
