• Read about the birth of the Atlanta Speedway here.

• Read about the death of the Atlanta Speedway here.

In 1914 Asa Candler, Sr., reclaimed the property that was occupied by the abandoned Atlanta Speedway. He had no intention of reinvigorating the track, and in fact told a reporter that he was considering selling it off as farmland, returning it to its former existence. But in 1915 an interesting proposal crossed his desk, brought to him by his younger brother, Bishop Warren Candler, former President of Emory College.

The Emory Migration

Way back in 1873, Cornelius Vanderbilt of the infamously wealthy Vanderbilt family pledged $1mm to establish Vanderbilt University. At that time, Vanderbilt was the richest man in the United States, and in his later years he focused on philanthropy throughout the country. A Methodist bishop based in Nashville, TN, convinced him to help establish a top-notch Southern Methodist college that would serve as training grounds for regional ministers. For the first several decades the school operated with Methodist oversight, until the early 1900s when board faced a pressing question of the modern era: should they open up the teaching staff criteria to include non-Methodists? As part of the modernization movement, they also changed the structure of the Board of Trust to include just five bishops, reducing the influence of the church on the board’s decisions.

In 1910 the board refused to seat three bishops, so the Methodist church sued and won the right to inform the balance of power. But the school continued to push back until the case rose all the way to the Tennessee State Supreme Court. In 1914 the court ruled that the school’s Commodore rightfully called the shots, not the church. Angered by their ouster, the church voted to cut its ties with Vanderbilt and establish a new Methodist college in the South.

A key player in all of this was the aforementioned Warren Akin Candler, former President of Emory College and younger brother of Asa Candler, Sr. Warren was one of the bishops involved in the power struggle at Vandy, and one of the loudest voices in the decision to sever its ties with the school. Betrayed by the court system and angered by the power upset, Warren returned to Georgia in 1914 and made a plea to his wealthy big brother to take charge and establish Atlanta as the site for the new school.

Asa Sr. was a devout man, deeply involved in the church and motivated by a strong moral sense of civic duty. He also saw Warren as a spiritual advisor, and greatly appreciated his perspective on life and faith. Add to that a bit of a Candler family “you’re not better than me” side-eye to the Vanderbilt family (I call it a one-sided feud that the Vanderbilts neither knew nor cared about). In short, Asa Sr. was very receptive to Warren’s ideas.

Mirroring Cornelius Vanderbilt’s original donation, Asa Sr. pledged $1mm to relocate his family’s alma mater, Emory College, to the Atlanta area, and helped Warren put together a proposal to take to the General Conference. They needed the church’s buy-in before they could take action.

The big question was where to put it. Fortunately, the Candler Investment Co. had a large parcel of land in its holdings that was doing nothing to earn its keep. The Atlanta Speedway had been dead for three years and no viable proposal had turned up yet to make it a worthwhile reinvestment. But for a college campus, it looked just about right.

Asa Sr. moved quickly. He purchased the land back at sheriff’s auction and then rallied the residents of Hapeville to get them on board with the idea of hosting a prestigious higher institute of learning. It would cost more than Asa Sr.’s $1mm pledge to make it happen, so he convinced them to fund-raise and campaign for the selection of the site, in order to make the General Conference’s decision easy.

But the proposal just wasn’t gelling. The site was too far and too expensive, even with the community’s support. In 1915 Asa Sr. and Warren came up with an alternative plan. Asa Sr. had purchased the Druid Hills land development some years prior and could allocate the land as he saw fit, so it was a suitable decision to move Emory College to a parcel of donated property in Druid Hills. This time the General Conference agreed. They accepted Asa Sr.’s land and monetary gifts and started the process of moving Emory from Oxford, GA to Atlanta.

When the proposal flipped, the land in Hapeville went idle again. When reached for comment, Asa Jr. stated that there was no chance that the Speedway would reopen. That ship had sailed. But what could the land be used for instead?

Candler Field is Born

As far back as 1910, Asa Jr. had seen the appeal of aviation. It was a new technology at the time, but if it was novel, expensive and fast, Asa Jr. wanted in. During the auto races he would bring in pilots and hold barnstorming expeditions between heats. It was a sensationalist, headline-grabbing show.

When the track shut down, some of the pilots asked if they could continue to use the property as a landing field, agreeing to pay a small amount of rent to lease the space. The two early pilots who took the lead were Doug Davis and Beeler Blevins. They had their eye on two business endeavors: flying lessons and air mail. Asa Jr. negotiated these early arrangements and permitted them to use the land until other prospects came along.

When the Hapeville Emory proposal fell through in 1915, Davis and Blevins felt confident that they could continue to use what was now becoming known as Candler Field. After all, no one else wanted it. But it was one other important event that helped to clinch the land as an air field: Asa Candler Jr. got his inheritance.

The High-Flying 20s

In 1916 Asa Candler, Sr. and his wife Lucy Elizabeth decided to give their adult children their inheritances early. Coca Cola had gone gangbusters, plus the bank and the warehouse business and a slew of other investments had all paid off nicely. The elder Candlers could afford to be generous with their five children. Asa Sr. settled any outstanding debt, of which Buddie’s was the largest, and paid out in full.

Part of the payout was the entire Coca Cola company, which the children were expected to co-manage with their oldest brother Charles Howard at the helm. It didn’t go well. They didn’t get along and frankly weren’t interested in the day-to-day decision making of running the business. By 1919 they wanted to cash out, and boy howdy did they cash out. They sold off Coca Cola and each walked away with $5mm in 1919 money. They were now mega-rich.

Buddie started living like a big shot immediately. He broke ground on Briarcliff Mansion, bought a luxury yacht, and started traveling. He lavished expensive gifts on his children and made some big investments, most which are covered in the Real Estate section of this site. 1924 and 1925 were big ramp-up years where he invested heavily in the city and saw himself as a guiding force in the Atlanta business community. So it’s no surprise that in 1924 he offered to lease all of Candler Field to the city of Atlanta.

Although Asa Jr. approached Mayor Sims with his proposal, it was then-Alderman William B. Hartsfield who anticipated the growing value of air service and campaigned hard to close the deal. Which is why the eventual airport was named Hartsfield Airport (now Hartsfield-Jackson).

The agreement was for a 5-year lease, and all the city had to do was pay taxes and upkeep. And there was a provision that would permit the city to buy the land outright at any time during the lease term for $100k. The city agreed and continued to allow Davis and Blevins to operate on the land. In 1926 Doug Davis built a hangar, and Beeler Blevins followed suit soon after. Then passenger service started up, following the successful roll-out of airmail to the surrounding area.

On October 11, 1927, Alderman Hartsfield pulled some strings and got Charles Lindbergh to fly to Candler Field in the Spirit of St. Louis for a public appearance. Lindbergh was brought into the city in a huge parade, and spoke to the citizens of Atlanta about the potential of commercial flight. The excitement over Lucky Lindy’s visit clinched air travel as a part of Atlanta’s identity. Just in the nick of time time, too. Asa Jr. was spiraling.

Step 7: Liquidate Assets

In the Real Estate section of the site I described how Asa Jr. lived large and invested in massive projects throughout the city from 1924-1927. Then, after his wife Helen died and his father suffered a stroke in 1927, he started selling off and cashing out of nearly every endeavor. While it’s likely that he was partially motivated by grief, there are also indicators that he was losing money, and his investments were becoming liabilities rather than profit-makers. In rapid succession and in many cases without warning, he turned his back on ventures like they held no value to him, like he was cutting his losses. Candler Air Field was no exception. The five-year lease with the city should have carried through to 1930. But in 1928 Asa Jr. demanded $100k or he would cancel the lease. Alderman Hartsfield kicked off a campaign to convince the city to come up with the funds, even though the city’s financial outlook for the coming year wasn’t great.

In March of 1929, the deal became official and the City of Atlanta purchased Candler Field outright. Money changed hands on April 13, 1929, to the tune of $94,500. Most histories incorrectly attribute the deal to Asa Candler, Sr., but Asa Sr. passed away on March 12, 1929, following two years of incapacitation. The deal was Asa Jr.’s alone.

Following the cycle described in the Garage Fire post, Asa Jr. went quiet for a brief period following the great liquidation of 1928 (step 8). And in 1929, he began the cycle anew with a new, big purchase: his very first private airplane. It was a maroon Waco open cockpit 165 hp biplane with "Briarcliff" stenciled on the side. And of course, he needed a pilot, just like he needed a driver during his auto racing years. Who did he hire? None other than Beeler Blevins. Yep, that’s Beeler in the photo below.

Very quickly, Buddie grew tired of the open-cockpit Waco, so at the end of 1929 he sold it and bought a new closed-cockpit Lockheed Vega. See the Airplanes page for details.

All throughout 1930 Blevins raced Asa Jr.’s airplane and attempted to set records. He was well paid and seems to have continued flying for his private business as well. In early 1930 he and Asa Jr.’s 25-year-old son John went into business together to form the Blevins Aircraft Co. and offered airplane storage at Blevins’ hangar for the wealthy Atlantans who had bought into flying fever.

Of course, we have to keep in mind the time period. On October 24, 1929, Black Thursday struck the economy and ushered in the Great Depression. Wealthy men who lived large in the 20s suddenly found themselves in dire financial straits, and that included those who had jumped on board the private plane fad. And as discussed in the Garage Fire entry, arson rates tend to rise during financial downturns. So when a fire broke out at the hangar belonging to Beeler Blevins on March 4, 1930, no one needed to solve the mystery of how it had started. It was certainly arson.

Given the circumstances of the Garage Fire of 1911, I want to be clear that I have not found any evidence to suggest that Asa Jr. was behind this act of arson. He had just purchased a new $20k Vega, and after the fire destroyed it he used the insurance money to replace it with another equivalent Vega. And in June of 1930 he bought a private plane for his daughter Martha. The great sell-off of 1928 and 1929 appears to have set him up financially to ride out the consequences of the Wall Street crash. Someone started that fire, but it wasn’t him.

Between 15 and 20 airplanes were destroyed in the blaze, along with the hangar itself. Buddie’s plane was lost, along with three belonging to Blevins himself. The total cost of the damage was around $140k. But the worst part was that Beeler carried no insurance on the structure or his planes. He was wiped out. Although details were never publicized as to how he managed to reestablish himself and build a new, better hangar and acquire new planes, his close association with Asa Jr. and John suggests they may have helped him out.

Candler Field continued on and eventually became Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, and the original road bed of the track was swallowed up. These days aviation history buffs can visit a partial replica of Candler Field at Peach State Aerodrome south of the city.

And that brings us to the end of the tale of the Atlanta Speedway. More stories about other entertaining episodes in Asa Candler, Jr.’s life are in the works. If you have any questions, corrections, or want to contribute any history to the story of the track and airport, please use the form on the Contact page to send me your thoughts.

Candler Field Becomes Hartsfield Airport Gallery

Candler Field Becomes Hartsfield Airport Resources

The absolute best and most definitive source for information on the history of Atlanta’s airport can be found at Sunshineskies.com.

For an interesting perspective on the impact Hartsfield-Jackson Airport has had on Hapeville and the surrounding area, I recommend reading Flight Path: A Search for Roots Beneath the World’s Busiest Airport by Hannah Palmer. There are plenty of resources where one can find a recitation of the timeline of the airport, but Palmer’s take is uniquely personal and offers a view into the way the evolution of the land impacted residents.