Church Restoration Adds New Dimension to Elvis Birthplace
culture, elvis, elvis presley, tupelo, tupelo convention & visitors bureau,
Ask anyone in Tupelo, and they’ll tell you the most fascinating site in the city is the Elvis Presley Birthplace.
“It’s our most famous attraction – people come from all over the world to see where Elvis came from,” says Linda Elliff, director of sales for the Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It’s a one-of-a-kind place, and we’re very proud of it. The Elvis Presley Birthplace, museum, park and all the sites from his life in Tupelo mean a lot to the tourism industry here.”
More than 80,000 Presley fans trek to Tupelo each year to walk through the modest, two-room house where the King of Rock ’n’ Roll was born on Jan. 8, 1935, and to visit the adjacent museum, gift shop, park and chapel. In August 2008, Presley’s home church will become part of the attraction.
“We have purchased the church Elvis attended in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and we moved it to our property in January,” says Dick Guyton, executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation.
Previously located on Berry Street in East Tupelo, the First Assembly of God Church played an integral role in Presley’s early life. It was where he sang regularly and learned to play chords on the guitar.
“From stories we have heard and interviews with his fellow church members, we know the church had quite an impact on his life and vastly influenced his musical career,” Guyton says.
The church, which has been a private home for the past 42 years, is being stripped down to reveal original fixtures from Presley’s time and restored to its 1930s condition.
“While it was still a church, the building had partially burned, and that part had never been repaired when it was made into a dwelling place,” Guyton says. “We had to demolish the inside to restore it. There’s about 50 percent of the original flooring left, a third of the inside paneling and about 50 percent of the outside walls.”
The restoration is being done at an estimated cost of $750,000 and is being funded by ticket sales, gift shop purchases and a donation from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
The project was completed in time for the annual Elvis Presley Birthplace Fan Appreciation Day on Aug. 9, 2008, when visitors were able to walk out of the memorial chapel, where Presley’s gospel music is played, directly into the church, where he learned to sing gospel music.
“It was a great experience for the fans,” Guyton says. “We had multimedia presentations going in the church that showed how the congregation worshipped in the 1930s.”
The church restoration is one of several enhancements made to the Elvis Presley Birthplace in recent years. In 2002, a statue of 13-year-old Presley clutching a guitar was unveiled and dedicated to his fans worldwide. And in 2006, the Elvis Presley Museum was completely renovated to include a new exhibit containing Tupelo artifacts, large photomurals and graphics, and two audiovisual presentations that bring Presley’s childhood in Tupelo to life.
“The museum renovation they did completes the story because it shows people what it was like for Elvis growing up here,” Elliff says. “The church restoration will be an added bonus for visitors to see what it was like to go to church in a rural town in the ’30s and ’40s. It gives an inside look at how Elvis was influenced musically.”
Story by Jessica Mozo
Photo by Jeff Adkins
Comments
I visited Elvis’ birthplace on the 1st of October last year with my friend. We’re from Scotland and at the ages of 65 went on a musical tour from Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland through Nashville, Memphis, Mississippi, Louisiana and ending up in New Orleans. We were very impressed with your site, how well tended, dignified and so peaceful it was.
By david donaldson
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