Saturday, 15 February 2014

Elvis Presley's fallen 'Graceland West' in Palm Springs listed at $4 million

When Elvis Presley died in August 1977, he owned two properties: Graceland, and this post-Priscilla bachelor pad in Palm Springs, California. Its current rundown state belies a "juicy history" that the New York Times briefly explored in 2003.
Elvis and wife Priscilla bought this house in 1970, moving in with their 2-year-old daughter, Lisa Marie. After their 1973 divorce, he added a wing that brought the house to its current square footage: 5,040. The addition contained a new master bedroom, plus a rec room that current listing agent Eric G. Meeks tells Yahoo Homes was basically a "big party room," with a steam room and a sauna that each open directly onto it.
"Supposedly Priscilla is not fond of this home," Meeks said, "because it symbolizes so much of Elvis' afterlife" as a single guy. 


That wouldn't be surprising, especially if there's truth to a tale that the New York Times heard. Priscilla Presley supposedly once discovered her husband with a coterie of friends in the Jacuzzi (capacity: 16). The Times further related, via property caretaker Victoria Cuevas: "There is the room where his bodyguard lived, when he wasn't being dispatched in the middle of night to replace television sets that Ms. Cuevas said Elvis destroyed with a handgun, and the oversize recreation room where Elvis practiced his karate moves."
(Click on the photo above for many more details about the home.)
In the past decade, the property has been legally entangled. The purported owner told news outlets over the years of grand plans to turn the home into a "Graceland West," a big development with a Sun Records facade on a recording studio, plus guest cottages replicating (we kid you not) the Memphis housing project where Elvis grew up and the shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where he was born. Meeks says delicately that those were the plans of a tenant who moved in on a promise but couldn't quite deliver.
Now the home is on the market for $3.95 million, waiting to be restored to its former glory. Much from Elvis' time remains, from the Jacuzzi (complete with paparazzi-thwarting cover) to most of the kitchen and bathrooms. featuring photos from the current listing as well as some Flickr pictures from back when the tenant-"owner" was conducting tours.

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