Graceland Gardens Apartments (Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin)

Graceland Gardens Apartments, formerly known as The Imperial Apartments, is an apartment building with 120 units located at 5000 Graceland Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The building is located just outside the city limits of Racine, Wisconsin, and is surrounded by Graceland Arms Apartments to the west, Goodland Elementary School across the city limits to the east, and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection to the north. The building is situated in the gap between the northern and southern segments of Perry Avenue.

History
The area now surrounded by South Green Bay Road to the west, Westway Avenue to the north, Ohio Street to the east, and Graceland Boulevard to the south was formerly one of several 40-acre dairy farms in the village of Mount Pleasant owned by the Buhler family, which used them to supply their Marigold Dairy company.

The Imperial Apartments building was constructed in 1966, developed by the Chudnow Construction Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During construction, on April 9, the owners reported that "ten basement window units, four range hoods and three medicine cabinets worth $260" were stolen from the site. The building opened to the public in early 1967, and was the first apartment building in the Racine area to feature an indoor swimming pool. By early March, half of the building's 120 units were ready for occupancy, with the remainder expected to by ready within 45 days.

Chudnow announced a major renovation of the building in October 1988, turning the Imperial into a building primarily oriented toward people over the age of 55. The $1.3 million renovation added elevators, an exercise room, and a recreation area to the building, and was completed in 1990. Chudnow Construction won the Metropolitan Builders Association of Greater Milwaukee's Building Industry Recognition Award in part for the Imperial renovation. By 2000, the Imperial's residents had an average age of 76, and the building had significantly less than the legally permitted 20 percent of its residents under the age of 55.

Between July and November 2014, an employee at the building leased apartments that were not supposed to be occupied and withheld the money she received from her employers. The employee's actions were discovered in November, by which time she had pocketed over $4,000 from the unauthorized leases. A car accident occurred at the intersection of Graceland Boulevard and Perry Avenue on February 23, 2018, with one of the vehicles being forced into the apartment building's parking ramp by the collision.