Lauderdale Courts

Lauderdale Courts is the federal housing project where Elvis Presley spent his teenage years. Built in the 1930s under the Public Works Administration program, with Georgian Revival buildings by architect J. Frazer Smith, it was one of the first federal housing projects in the country and, under segregation, whites only. The Presleys applied on June 17, 1949, and moved that fall into Apartment 328 at 185 Winchester Avenue, a first-floor, two-bedroom unit of 689 square feet at $35 a month. Elvis was fourteen. The family had come up from Tupelo the year before with very little. The Courts ran on rules. The housing authority inspected every month, and a neighbor recalled Elvis being written up for a cereal bowl left on the table. He played music with other boys from the complex during his years at Humes High School, under a mile away. The mother and siblings of Bill Black, later his bass player, lived in the Courts too, though the two did not meet until Sun Studio. The family's combined income eventually passed the limit, reaching $4,133, and they were told to leave. They moved out in January 1953, the day before his eighteenth birthday, to a smaller and dearer place on Saffarans. By the mid-1990s only about 75 apartments were occupied and the complex was slated for demolition. Fans, the city and developers saved it. It closed as a project in 2000, was renovated as mixed-income housing and reopened as Uptown Square, with Apartment 328 restored.