It's Official: Sun Studio A Landmark.

Sun Studio, where Sam Phillips first recorded Elvis Presley and other rock and roll pioneers, will become the first recording studio in America to be designated a historic landmark.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton is scheduled to sign the designation Wednesday in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

The Beale Street Historic District and the Chucalissa Indian mound complex at T. O. Fuller State Park are the only other historic landmarks in Memphis.

The recognition is reserved for businesses or structures with a significant place in American history. There are 25 in Tennessee and 2,347 in the nation, compared to more than 47,000 on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sun Studio at 706 Union was the recording site for some of the greatest rock and roll, rockabilly, blues and rhythm and blues artists of the 1950s.

It was where Presley recorded That's All Right and Carl Perkins recorded Blue Suede Shoes. B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis also recorded at Sun.

But the landmark designation is "more for Phillips than some of the stars who recorded there," said Park Service historian Patty Henry.

"Even if Elvis had never recorded there, (Phillips) was very influential in pioneering the rock and roll sound."

For instance, it was Phillips who placed the acoustic tiles that musicians said helped create the unique sound of the early recordings, said Henry. She said no other recording studio has been designated a national landmark.

Sun, which exists pretty much as Phillips created it, is still a working studio where artists record at night.

During the day it's a place for visitors interested in music history. Forty-minute tours bring more than 100,000 visitors a year through a small museum and into the actual studio. There, guests can sing into the microphone used by many of the studio's legends and see the exact spot where famous musicians stood.

The new designation will make Sun eligible for some federal grants and tax incentives.

John Schorr, acting general manager and one of the family members who owns the studio, said he hopes state officials will post directional signs to the studio on highways, even though it doesn't meet their threshold for having 300,000 visitors annually.

But principally, the owners are glad to have the landmark status "as a recognition from the federal government of just how special this business is. It's really a pat on the back," said Schorr.

Former college roommates, Melissa Morgen of Randolph, N.J., and Courtney Phillips of Gilbert, Ariz., visited the Sun studio Monday. The pair had not originally planned to visit the studio but decided to after driving by and hearing other people talk about it.

"It's the best tour we've been on in Memphis," Courtney Phillips said. "Rock and roll is such a huge part of American culture, so I think the place where Elvis began is important enough to make it (to historic landmark status)."

About 52 percent of historic landmarks are, like Sun, privately owned, said Henry. Another 19 percent are multi-use districts like Beale Street. The rest are owned by federal, state or local government.

Schorr, who will be in Washington for Wednesday's declaration, said the studio will receive a plaque to place on the building.