Nestled in the outskirts of the city of Atlanta, in a suburb called Druid Hills, lies Briarcliff Mansion. It sits on Briarcliff Road in the Briarcliff neighborhood, surrounded by strip malls and businesses with the name Briarcliff in their signage. The mansion and the land it occupies are owned by Emory University, which refers to the area as its Briarcliff Campus.

Briarcliff Mansion once belonged to a man named Asa Candler, Jr., or Buddie as friends and family knew him. The second son and namesake of Coca Cola founder Asa Griggs Candler, Buddie was a wealthy real estate developer and socialite whose big, boisterous personality made him both beloved and reviled in the Atlanta community between 1910 and 1950.

These days Buddie is mostly forgotten. When he’s remembered he’s typically described by two adjectives: eccentric and alcoholic. While both adjectives are accurate, they’re only a tiny slice of who he was as a man. This persistent reputation is perpetuated by a Wikipedia entry that draws the majority of its facts from a narrow set of relatively unnuanced sources, which mostly exist to capture the history of the mansion. Because the mansion and its preservation are the primary focus, the parts of his life relevant to the mansion are the ones that are repeated over and over, on blogs and in newsletters, all referencing each other in a circular manner that distorts and narrows over time.

I, too, am interested in the preservation of Briarcliff Mansion. But in learning about its history I realized that I was getting only snippets of its owner’s life, and most of those snippets were self-referential. One blog made a claim because another blog made a claim because a newsletter made a claim because the first blog made a claim. None of which ever pointed back to original source material or evidence. After reading as much as I could on the internet, I was still left with a remaining question:

Who was Asa Candler, Jr.?

I figured out quickly that I would have to dig into his life myself if I really wanted an answer. In February of 2017 I started looking into the life of Asa Candler, Jr. What followed was two years of research, including a deep dive into all of the primary resources I could find, which required traveling across the state of Georgia, visiting historic properties, acquiring architectural salvage, and interviewing small town historians, music directors, preservationists, clergymen, archivists, and even Asa Jr’s own great-grandson. I pulled real estate documents and vital records and spoke with the Dekalb County Medical Examiner’s office to locate police reports for a particularly intriguing episode in his life. I met with other local authors whose historic passions crossed paths with mine.

I read the excellent Candler family biography, Formula for Fortune”by Ann Uhry Abrams and the entertaining but somewhat loose family history, The Real Ones by Elizabeth Candler Graham. I acquired rare books such as a copy of Charles Howard Candler’s semi-memoir, semi-biography about his father, titled Asa Griggs Candler and Peachtree Parade: Rollicking Recollections of Atlanta's Favorite Columnist by Ernest Rogers. I read every archived newspaper and trade publication I could find, spent hours huddled in the Emory Rare Papers Archive, scanned microfilm in the resource room at the Atlanta History Center, and after two years I feel like I can confidently answer my question. I know who Asa Candler, Jr., was.

At first I didn’t call him Buddie. It took months to grant myself permission to call him Buddie. But that’s how I think of him now, and that’s how I’m presenting him here. Throughout this site I’ll refer to him as Buddie, especially where necessary to distinguish from his father. I invite you to think of him as Buddie, too, if you get to know him through the stories contained here.

So who was Buddie? First, the short(ish) version, below, and then more detailed versions on dedicated pages. Full timelines accompany each section of his life. The Contact page contains a form to submit questions if you have any. If I can’t answer, I’ll try my best to point you in the direction of someone who can.

And now, the short(ish) version.

The shortest version can be found on Wikipedia. In the broad strokes it’s mostly accurate, although it is not true that he traveled across the US setting up Coca Cola operations. His connection to the Coca Cola company is overstated in the most resources. In my opinion the short version doesn’t suffice, so I’ll provide the shortest version I can here.

Childhood

Asa Candler, Jr., was born in Atlanta, GA, in 1880. He was the second son and namesake of Asa Griggs Candler, the man who launched Coca Cola to worldwide fame and made a fortune off of nickel sodas. A mischievous troublemaker, possibly with impulse-regulation issues and a learning disability, Buddie made life hard for his parents, siblings and teachers alike. In 1888, the same year Asa, Sr., purchased the Coca Cola formula, Buddie was sent away to live with his Aunt Florence and attend her all-girl school in Cartersville, GA, about 50 miles from home. His aunt and uncle did their best to keep him in line and bring his grades up. In correspondence, Asa, Sr., referred to his education at a “good school” and held raised expectations when his scion went on to pursue higher education.

College

In 1895 he joined his older brother Charles Howard at Emory College, then located in Oxford, GA, about 40 miles east of Atlanta. He lived with his uncle, Warren Candler, who was then president of the college. He quickly found himself in trouble for pranks, skipping class, smoking, and otherwise acting up. He discovered a love of bicycle racing and organized a club for bicycle enthusiasts but otherwise split from the norm and mostly abstained from fraternities, sports and other campus organizations. By 1898 Uncle Warren had enough of his unruly behavior and high-handed expectations of preferential treatment and kicked both Buddie and Howard out of his home. They finished their schooling from a boarding house. Howard graduated with high marks. Buddie did not.

Los Angeles

Immediately after graduation in 1899, Buddie was sent by his father to Los Angeles, CA, to run West Coast Coca Cola operations. While there may have been outside contributing factors, his troubles staying organized and managing numbers, as well as poor resistance to vice, appear to have hindered his success. In 1900, Asa. Sr., temporarily sent Howard out west to take over and brought Buddie back to Georgia. This was Buddie’s last significant contribution to Coca Cola’s management.

Marriage, Mill & Family

He was next deployed to Hartwell, GA, to run his fathers newest venture, a struggling cotton mill owned by family friend William Witham. Buddie worked as treasurer and secretary and was responsible for balancing the books and managing payroll. He took the job seriously at first, but then he met Helen McGill, married her, and started a family right away. His attention drifted from the business and he soon lost control of the already tricky finances. After the death of his baby son in 1905, his father made arrangements to bring him home to Atlanta for good.

The Atlanta Speedway & Airport

Following his return to Atlanta he bounced around among several jobs, including a nominal role at Coca Cola, a coal broker, a tontine life insurance board member, and the manager of Asa, Sr.’s, vast real estate holdings. The last one stuck, and Buddie managed the family’s real estate business for the rest of his life, even releasing any remaining managerial claim to the Coca Cola empire for the right to do so.

In 1909 Buddie launched the most ambitious project of his career: the Atlanta Speedway, a top quality two-mile track built explicitly for automobile racing. Buddie was a car enthusiast from the earliest days of the technology, and this project put him at the forefront of a growing national past-time. He attained national B-list celebrity status for his amateur driving skills and hobnobbed with the biggest names in racing. Unfortunately, the track never turned a profit and closed in 1911. The property remained in the Candler Investment Co.’s portfolio, became Candler Airfield, and is now Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport.

Briarcliff Farm & Selling Coca Cola

In 1912 Buddie moved his family to the burgeoning planned community of Druid Hills, which his father had invested heavily in. He occupied an existing farmhouse and adopted the life of a dairy farmer and chicken breeder. He supplied WWI troops at the nearby Fort McPherson base with milk, but when the war wound down he could no longer sustain operations. He sold the dairy endeavor off and closed the farm.

In 1916 Asa, Sr., was elected mayor of Atlanta. In an effort to prevent perception that he would be influenced by his business’s interests, he divested himself of several holdings, gifted the Coca Cola company to his five children, and gave them their inheritances early. Three years later in 1919, the children agreed to sell Coca Cola for $25mm, a massive windfall at that time. Now flush with cash, Buddie went to work making good on his wildest ambitions.

The Big Spending Years

First up was Briarcliff Mansion. Larger than his father’s house, even larger than his older brother’s house, he spared no expense. Over the next decade he bought yachts and aeroplanes, hunted large game, rubbed elbows with celebrities, entertained Atlanta’s social movers and shakers, and did everything with a showy flash that earned him a mixed national reputation as someone to be both cheered for and jeered at. His six surviving children, Lucy III, John, Laura, Martha, Helen Jr., and Samuel all lived as extravagantly as he did and often found their antics published in local and regional headlines. In 1927 Helen, his wife of 26 years, passed away. Six months later he married Florence Stephenson.

While the 1920s were shaped by the fever dreams of large ambition and the unstoppable folly of mega-wealth, in the 1930s Buddie made some choices that would affect him for the rest of his life: First, he discovered magic. Second, he invested in historic Westview Cemetery. Third, he opened a zoo on his front lawn.

Magic, Zoo & Legal Problems

His magic years are all but forgotten, although his presence in the late-1920s magic community was well reported in major industry publications like Billboard Magazine. I interviewed active members of the International Brotherhood of Magicians as well as David Copperfield’s personal archivist and both had heard of Asa Candler, Jr.’s , legendary collection of apparatuses. But when I spoke with one of his great-grandsons, a Candler family historian, I discovered that he had no knowledge of Buddie’s magic years. In the future I will add anecdotes to the site that detail out some of his adventures during this phase.

The impact of his management on Westview Cemetery was only recently documented in Jeff Clemmons’ book Atlanta’s Historic Westview Cemetery. The zoo, by contrast, is his most enduring legacy. Anyone in present-day Atlanta who has heard of Asa Candler, Jr., has heard about the zoo. An ambitious project nearly as presumptuous as the Atlanta Speedway, it opened in 1932 and was insolvent by 1933. He spent the next two years trying to offload the animals, and by 1935 he’d sold the majority of his menagerie to what is now Zoo Atlanta.

The late 1930s were marred by numerous legal issues. He faced multiple lawsuits related to the zoo on his front lawn, brought by neighbors who objected to the noise, smells, traffic, and occasional escaped animal. He faced additional suits associated with real estate deals gone sour, as well as suits stemming from landscape revisions and business restructuring at West View Cemetery. While he mostly weathered the storm of the Great Depression, these lawsuits took their toll on his cash flow.

In 1942 Buddie announced what would be his final ambitious project: the West View Cemetery Abbey and Mausoleum, the largest single mausoleum structure the nation. But thanks to his cash flow limitations and the start of WWII, he had neither the financing nor the steel to get the project off of the ground. But he had an idea of how to fix the financing. He always had ideas.

The Laundry

Briarcliff Laundry, Inc. opened in 1940 as the largest single laundry and cold storage facility in the southeast. If you’re noticing the way superlatives followed him throughout his life, you’re paying attention. When the West View Mausoleum started out as a plan, Briarcliff Laundry became the obvious solution to bring in construction funding. But in 1943 a fire swept through the laundry facility and leveled it completely, destroying the personal property of paying customers. The investigation following the fire revealed that the business had been charging fees for insurance premiums to cover loss or damage, but hadn’t secured a policy that was sufficient to pay out on the damages. Buddie and his two sons, John and Samuel, landed in federal court and faced potential prison time for fraud.

In April of 1944 Asa, Jr., and his sons were acquitted, but that wasn’t the end of his woes. West View customers were infuriated by the beautification efforts he’d implemented without informing or acquiring consent of plot holders. A class action suit tied him up in court once again.

The Cemetery, the Mausoleum & the Great Sell-Off

In 1946 Buddie started selling off properties and funneling the money into the unfinished mausoleum project. In 1948 Buddie finalized the sale of his beloved Briarcliff property and sold it to the state, which planned to turn it into a veteran’s hospital. He and his wife moved into the penthouse suite of the Briarcliff Hotel and Apartments, which he owned.

Also, sometime around the early 40s, Buddie found God. He gave up drinking and surrounded himself with high-ranking officials in the Methodist and Southern Baptist church communities. The mausoleum took on a greater meaning for him, no longer a mere palace of the dead for the movers and shakers of Atlanta’s elite society. It was now a gift to God, as well as to the community. He focused with singularity on completing his vision until he fell ill in 1950.

After 1950 his focus turned inward as he contemplated his mortality. He obtained legal rights to liquidate his holdings in spite of still-pending lawsuits from the West View plot holders. He declared his intention to make himself insolvent so he could leave everything he had to his family. In 1952 he gave up on the dream of completing his mausoleum and sold West View, now Westview Cemetery, at a loss, with the hope that the new owners would finish what he started. To this day the building remains incomplete.

The End of Buddie Candler

In 1953 Asa Candler, Jr., passed away from a liver malignancy. His estate was estimated to be around $2mm, a fraction of the fortune he’d once held. He left his money to his wife, his surviving children, and eight of his servants.