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| One of the largest Elvis Presley artifacts in the world is his former home at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis. If this house could speak, it would provide lost details from a chapter in the life of one of the twentieth-centuries most celebrated figures. .. |   |
| In the meantime, two historic preservation pioneers are encouraging the house to talk by restoring it to its original look. by Mark Medley photography by Raeanne Rubenstein styling by Alicia Odom |   |
| Elvis Presley was flush with royalties from his smash hit "Heartbreak Hotel," when he determined to move himself and his family from Memphis' inner-city housing project at Lauderdale Courts to the newly emerging suburbs east of downtown. In March, 1956 he purchased a virtually new four-bedroom house near fashionable Audubon Park and moved himself, his mother Gladys, father Vernon, and grandmother Minnie Mae to this modern brick ranch house at 1034 Audubon Drive. Elvis planned to settle here, redecorating and expanding the house to his tastes, adding a swimming pool, and even planting many of the trees in the yard. However, his growing fame attracted such legions of fans to the house that by April 1957 he was compelled to move to the more secluded environs of Graceland. After the Presley's departure, the house at 1034 Audubon Drive changed hands a number of times over the course of forty years, but a good portion of its Elvis era decor such as light and plumbing fixtures, appliances, and wallcoverings were still amazingly intact in early 1998 when it was purchased by authors and Elvis experts Cindy Hazen and Mike Freeman. Since that time, Cindy and Mike have done considerable research on the house and continue to restore it to its mid-twentieth-century glory -as it looked as home to the future King of Rock & Roll. To this end they have collected photographs of the Presleys taken at the house and used these images to direct them as they search estate sales, antique shops, and memorabilia dealers for period furnishings and ephemera. In most cases, Cindy and Mike have been able to closely match the lamps, TVs, hi-fis, and furniture used by the Presleys -most of it in the kitschy space-age style of the 1950s. Mike Freeman notes that some people said "the Presley's had terrible taste" but points out that they "bought the same stuff as their neighbors." Cindy Freeman adds, "Elvis was into lamps. His mother even complained about all the lamps because she didn't know what to do with them all!" .. |       ... |
As Cindy and Mike began to remove multiple layers of wallpaper from the hallway of the house they made a startling discovery: Elvis' musical note/piano key wallpaper. Mike says they knew something special was underneath the layers, but when they found the swirling notes and keys, "it was like striking gold." Lucky for them, they are acquainted with two wallpaper experts from New York who happen to be Elvis fans, and are coming down to restore the wallpaper to its original look. This is only one project among many for Cindy and Mike as they continue their research and restoration of the house, but the King's former castle is in the best of hands. .. |  | |||
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www.Dishmag.com / Issue 4 - January 2009
