CONVENIENT
LOCATION
Directly across the street
from the Graceland Mansion is the
Graceland
Plaza,
also known as the visitor's
center, a one-block long collection of white stone buildings that house
such features as:
the ticket booth
for MUSEUM&MANSION TOURS&an
information desk&a
United States Post Office&two
restaurants&an
ice cream parlor&the Automobile museum
&the
Elvis Up-Close Museum&the "Walk a Mile in My
Shoes" movie
theater&the Airplane and Bus tour sites&the
Art exhibition
area&public restrooms&a first aid station
&benches
and tables for resting or people watching&fan
club information
booths&numerous gift shops
From almost any point in
the Plaza YOU CAN EASILY VIEW THE MANSION across the street.
At Graceland
Plaza, proximity is everything. But don't take our word for
it; just ask S.
J. Bronner (1986), noted
material culture theorist:
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Reliance on proximity
can be explained by recalling that people
associate objects,
like persons, with other prominent objects around
them. This helps
people define a center by establishing borders,
usually on either
side, which guide movement to the center. Doing
so is a basic
way of constructing malleable categories as part of a
system of navigation--social
and physical--and thus of judging
experience (12).
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In essence, all roads lead
to Graceland. And Graceland Plaza is
the center of it all. Located on Elvis Presley Boulevard and near Interstate
55,
Graceland
Plaza is automobile accessible. Buses are welcome.
where YOUR memories live again
I'm from Memphis;
I go by here all the time.
I don't think it's tacky at all.
Gives us jobs.
I know a lot of people who work here.
They like it all right,
I guess.
I don't think I'd make a special trip
just to come here,
but since it's so close and
some of the stuff is interesting, I stop by.
I've heard of people coming from
Germany and
Japan
and England.
That's sort of excessive,
I think,
but if they can afford it, why not?
Jackie, observer fun
Memphis, TN
(Personal Interview, August 13, 1993)
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