Before the adoring crowds, before the swaying hips, before Graceland, before there was a King, there was Tupelo.

Elvis Presley was born in this northeast Mississippi city on Jan. 8, 1935, in a two-room home that his father built for $180. Each year, more than 80,000 people visit the home, which Elvis once remarked could fit inside his living room at Graceland.

The house nearly passed into obscurity in the 1950s when the land came up for sale. But Elvis happened to be stopping through in 1956 to play a concert at the fair, and he decided to donate the proceeds of his show to preserve his boyhood home and save the 15-acre plot from development.

“I’m sure he wasn’t thinking in 1956 that it was going to be what it is today, but he had foresight enough to not want to see that little shack that he was born in be torn down,” says Linda Elliff, sales director for the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Now, though, it is probably one of the most popular attractions in the state of Mississippi.”

The property has evolved over the years, with the restoration of the house completed by the Tupelo Garden Club before Presley’s death, the construction of a meditation chapel in 1979, and the opening of a museum in 1992. The  site also includes the fully restored Assembly of God church that Elvis attended with his family as a little boy, and a replica of the vehicle that Vernon Presley took his family to Memphis in when Elvis was 13 years old.

“People have really enjoyed seeing the early life of Elvis Presley because nobody has ever told that story before,” says Dick Guyton, executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation. “That’s what we’re all about. We let Graceland take care of the famous entertainer Elvis, and we portray to the fans his early years, his beginning, and how those 13 years in Tupelo affected the rest of his life.”

306 Elvis Presley Drive, Tupelo MS 38801

(662) 841-1245

www.elvispreslerybirthplace.com