The elementary school stage where Elvis Presley performed is being renovated to look like it did in the 1940s when the singer graced its stage.
Workers at Lawhon Elementary School in Tupelo, Mississippi, found original hardwood floors under the tile they were pulling up in the school’s auditorium and decided to refinish it rather than lay down something new.
“We knew it would look so good that we decided to keep them and refinish them,” Tupelo Public School District director of maintenance Kirk Kitchens said of the heart pine floors, the Daily Journal reported. “It’s probably been under that tile since the 1960s.”
The school is being completely renovated this summer.
Contractor Mike Riggs said workers opted to sand the floors and clear-coat them with polyurethane rather than stain them, which will let the wood’s natural colors shine through. “It’s not like the stuff they put down nowadays,” Riggs said, the Daily Journal reported.
The newspaper said the auditorium seats also were restored to their original condition, including one seat marked as where Presley sat when he was a student. Although Kitchens said he wasn’t sure who carved “Elvis was here” into the seat, they decided to leave it as a monument to the King of Rock and Roll.
“We don’t know if Elvis actually did that, but we thought it was neat,” Kitchens said.
Judy Schumpert of the Elvis Presley Birthplace said the school helped Presley get into music as a boy and that his fifth-grade teacher Oleta Grimes entered him into his first talent competition, The Associated Press reported.
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