This was my third time visiting Memphis and Graceland (you can see photos of Graceland here ), and this time I also decided to visit the little town of Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
Tupelo is about an hour and a half drive southeast of Memphis so it’s an easy day trip, but we stayed there overnight, ready to get away from big cities like Nashville (where we stayed for 4 nights) and Memphis and experience small town America before heading south to New Orleans.
So, was it worth it and would I do it again?
If you don’t have a car in Memphis, this is the place to go Full-Day Tour with Get Your Guide Enjoy Elvis music videos and movies during your ride.
Need to stay at Elvis Presley’s birthplace?
Well, it depends on how tight your itinerary is or how leisurely you want to take your music tour road trip through Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana! We stayed overnight and have highlighted some of the things to do here in this post.
To the outside tourist, Tupelo is all about Elvis, and in fact the largest industry here is healthcare, with tourism a much smaller industry, but to us it was all about the King of Rock and Roll.
We start in the two-room house where twins Elvis Aaron and Jesse Gallon (stillborn) were born on January 8, 1935. The house was built by their father, Vernon, with a $180 loan. In fact, it only has two rooms, not two bedrooms. The original house is still standing on its original site, but it’s now part of a huge complex, so it feels a bit out of place.
Long after Elvis had moved to Memphis, the property was put up for sale and brought back to Tupelo, where the singer and actor, then 21 years old, purchased the property and surrounding land and donated it to the city as a public park, which I thought was a very charitable act for someone so young.
Today, there’s a museum full of fun Elvis memorabilia you wouldn’t find at Graceland, as well as a chapel that Elvis’ friends funded when he died, and the church that Elvis and his parents attended has been relocated to the grounds (note: this is not the black church depicted in the Baz Luhrmann film).
For example, did you know that Elvis’ look was modeled on Captain Marvel Jr., a 1940s comic book hero with curly black hair and a lightning bolt symbol on the top of his head. This symbol also served as the inspiration for Elvis’ TCB (Taking Care of Business) logo.
Also, Elvis was such a big hit so quickly, that to capitalize on his fame, the manufacturers of Roy Rogers dolls started selling dolls with their heads swapped out for ones that looked like Elvis. Pictured below is this crazy combination, worth about $50,000 today.
How much time can you spend at Elvis’s birthplace?
You can spend a few hours to tour the house/museum/church and gift shop (of course!), or you can watch a 20-minute film in the small cinema that doubles as an event space, and then stroll around the reflecting pool and pose with the statue of the man behind the boy.
Don’t miss the museum as it’s probably one of the best things to see, and if you get a chance to meet the curator, he’s a consultant on the Elvis biopic and has met Baz Luhrmann and Austin Butler, who came to research the Elvis film.
At the church, a guide greets us and shows us another video, this one recreating what a Pentecostal Assemblies of God church service might look like. Afterwards, I spend about 30 minutes alone in the gift shop, where I buy a hip-shaking Elvis watch ;D
Take an Elvis Presley Driving Tour in Tupelo
If you have your own car, you can drive around to about 14 landmarks and important places. Self-Guided Elvis TourIt is home to Lawhon Elementary School, Johnny’s Drive-In where he ate a hamburger, a swimming pool, Tupelo Hardware, and various statues.
Tupelo Hardware Company is where Elvis got his first guitar, and now it’s on the Elvis map as an actual hardware store, but it also sells guitars and souvenir T-shirts, and apparently still sells about one guitar a week.
They’re really celebrating their heritage so feel free to stop by and ask about Elvis and see that there’s an X on the floor where he first found his guitar – it made me laugh a little bit because do we actually know where he was standing?!
It’s a bit like the eerie X that marks the spot in Dallas where JFK was fatally shot, but I know where it happened, and I’ve stood on it.
The manager told us how Elvis first spotted a bicycle in a shop window but didn’t have the money to buy it. Then Elvis went into the store and found a guitar but still didn’t have enough money and Vernon Presley was in prison at the time so times were tough for Gladys and Elvis. It was his teacher who gave Gladys a few dollars to buy Elvis a guitar and the rest is history.
But Tupelo isn’t thriving because of Elvis Presley. It’s a small town of just over 38,000 people, but it’s thriving. It’s a manufacturing town. Once the center of furniture manufacturing in America.
Driving in, you pass the huge Toyota factory, but the medical industry is now the city’s biggest source of income.
Other things to do in Tupelo
Tupelo Elvis Festival
Keeping with the theme, the month of June sees the Elvis Festival in Tupelo.
Visit Tupelo Buffalo Park
Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo It is home to a large herd of American bison (aka buffalo) and other animals. I’m not a huge fan of zoos, but it would be rude not to mention this one. You can do safari drives here, and the buffalo will sometimes come right up to your car. There are also zebras, sloths, birds, kangaroos and other animals.
Shop at the Downtown Tupelo Farmers Market
Every Saturday in the summer from May to October from 8am to noon, Downtown Tupelo Farmers Market The Farmers Depot, located downtown at 415 South Spring Street, is a must-visit place. Find fresh produce, flowers, bread, cakes, honey, jams and more. Enjoy “4 Hours of Freshness.”
Shop at Relics Antiques Marketplace
If you love hunting for vintage, collectibles and antiques, this two-story building with 100 vendors is the place to be (Elvis’ mother, Gladys, worked here, just a few blocks from Main Street, next to the train tracks). You’ll likely spend hours here.
Visit the Caron Gallery
Caron Gallery, located at 150 W Main Street, features work by about 50 local Mississippi artists and features paintings, mixed media pieces, ceramics, photography and folk art.
Blair House Interior
I stopped in for lunch at Cafe 212 and happened to walk into Blairhaus Interiors next door and bought a little painting of an old church. I asked the salesgirl which church it was and she didn’t know, so I asked her to tell me it was the church Elvis went to and she did and I bought the painting.
Where should I stay in Tupelo?
So should we stay in Tupelo or take a day trip from Memphis? If we were to do the Nashville to Memphis to New Orleans music tour again, we would probably include Tupelo as an optional day trip. But we loved the laid back charm of this small town and don’t regret staying there at all.
We are out of town La Quinta Suitesall were very tasty and cheap. There were very nice restaurants about 500m away, we went to Lost Pizza and enjoyed burgers at Neon Pig.
But Main Street Tupelo is home to some great shops (yes, we supported local!), hardware stores, and some great places to eat, so we definitely recommend checking it out. Hotel TupeloIt is a 4 star hotel and everything you want to see is within walking distance.
Check out my post filled with photos of the inside of the Graceland mansion and Elvis’ plane.
