Large Estate and Mansion in GA Build by Son of Coca Cola President
Briarcliff - Asa Candler, Jr. House, Atlanta Georgia
Briarcliff, the Asa Griggs Candler, Jr., House, rests on a site that was opened for settlement in 1821, exactly a century before this house was underway. Asa G. Candler, Sr. (1851-1929), a native of Villa Rica, GA., rose to become the president of the Coca Cola Company in 1892, an endeavor, among others, in which he made millions of dollars. While he served in many other capacities, including briefly as Mayor of Atlanta, he was also heavily into real estate. In the late 1890s he and others were involved in the establishment of the Druid Hills neighborhood, a vast tract of land in Atlanta along Ponce de Leon Avenue, that came north along what is now the east side of Briarcliff Road. On the west side of Briarcliff Road (then called Williams Mill Road), he retained a large tract for himself, which he used as a farm. Here he grew fruits, vegetables, and raised chickens, while he lived (after 1903) at his mansion in Inman Park, Atlanta. At that time this property was considered to be out in the country, and the roads were unpaved.
Property south of this tract was sold to Asa, Sr.'s oldest son, Charles Howard Candler, where he built the house known as Callanwolde in 1920. It is owned by DeKalb County and used as an arts and crafts center.
Asa G. Candler, Jr. (1880-1953) was the second of Asa, Sr.'s children. He was known as a very colorful character who was among other things a big-game hunter, yachtsman, and an aviator, who first worked for his father's company by traveling over the United States selecting sites for Coca Cola bottling plants and supervising their construction.
Around 1900, he married his first wife, Helen Magill, a Hartwell, Georgia native. After acquiring the 42 acre site on Briarcliff Road from his father, he built their first house here in 1912. As their family grew, it became necessary to build a totally new, larger house. He hired the architectural firm of Charles E. Frazier (1884-1939), a Griffin, Georgia native, to design the present house. Frazier's known works include many of the houses in the West Paces Ferry Road area, notably those in Tuxedo Park. Along with his later partner, Daniel Bodin (1895-1963), he published at least one book showing their work in Tuxedo Park. The firm specialized in building mansions, and thus this one was no exception.
The date that construction began is not known, but it is known that plans were set and the contractor selected when the following notice appeared in the Manufacturers' Record of October 20th, 1921:
it is presumed from this announcement that the house could not have been completed until 1922. The summer porch/pavilion, south of the porte cochere, was added in time for the wedding of their eldest daughter, Lucy, in the garden on June 17th, 1924.
The only other major addition to the main house itself was the construction of the Music Room, and the adjoining Dining Room and kitchen, completed by April, 1925.
Mr. Candler and his first wife had six surviving children to live here. When they moved in during 1922, they ranged in age from 8 to 20.
Briarcliff was the scene of many social activities while the younger Candler children were growing up. When the children were older, the house was the scene of annual sorority and fraternity parties. Mr. Candler was an amateur magician and often entertained his children's friends.
In January, 1927, Helen Magill Candler died. Later that year, in October, Mr. Candler was remarried to Miss Florence Stevenson, who had previously been his secretary. The new Mrs. Candler was a gifted organist.
The Music Room, completed by April, 1925, was designed by Frazier and Bodin. During the construction, which affected some of the well-used family rooms in the main house, the family went to China on a vacation. The Music Room was the scene of many organ recitals and other musical events. When the house was sold, the original organ Can Aeolian, installed in June, 1925) was donated to Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, and installed in 1958.
Mr. Candler was also an animal lover, and while on a trip to Hamburg, Germany, during the Depression, he learned of a small circus that was going bankrupt. The architects Frazier and Bodin are said to have received a telegram from him: "Bought Circus. Build Zoo." The animals were shipped in April, 1932, first to New York and then by train to Atlanta, eventually arriving at the Candler estate. While the zoo was popular, there were many incidents with escaped animals. Eventually, in 1935, Mr. Candler decided to donate the zoo to the City of Atlanta. While Atlanta's original zoo began in 1889, Candler's animals were a valuable impetus toward the creation of a modern zoo for Atlanta.
By June, 1933, the public swimming pool had been completed and was open to the public on the property. A charge of 25 cents was made. There was a bathhouse for the public's use in changing, and refreshments were also available. This remained open until the early 1950s.
Candler also decided to open a commercial laundry on his property. It was placed behind the servants' quarters, and lasted for eight years until it burned in 1943. Laundry services were provided free to the military stationed in Atlanta and this caused a disagreement with the government. The laundry was destroyed by a mysterious fire.
During World War II, the balcony of the Music Room was used to store radio transmitting equipment in the event that the United States was attacked. While this transmitting station was well equipped with the latest technology, it never had to be used.
The Candlers sold the property in 1948 to the United States Government to be the site of a Veterans Administration hospital. When the hospital was not built, the property was declared surplus. The Candlers continued to live on the property until 1952, when the State of Georgia bought the property to use as a hospital for recovering alcoholics.
The Candlers then moved to the nearby Briarcliff Hotel, one of their properties, and it was from there that Mr. Candler died on January 11th, 1953. Mrs. Florence Candler survived him until her death on October 8th, 1977. They were both buried at West View Cemetery.
The state converted parts of the mansion to offices, and began the continuous use of the house as a rehabilitation center. The Georgian Clinic, the state's first alcohol treatment and residential center, opened in 1953. One of their first changes was the construction of the gatehouse which still sits at the entrance to the property.
The Music Room was renamed for the Very Reverend Raymond DeOvies, former dean of St. Philip's Episcopal Cathedral, who was the first professional staff member hired at the clinic.
In 1960, the State Alcoholism Commission, which operated the clinic, was abolished, and its duties transferred to the Georgia Department of Public Health (now the Georgia Department of Human Resources). On the south part of the parcel of the property they built the Georgia Mental Health Institute which opened in 1965. In 1970, the Georgian Clinic became a component of the Georgia Mental Health Institute, and the inpatient program was transferred to its cottages.
In 1973, the outpatient programs of the Georgian Clinic were assigned to the North DeKalb Mental Health Center, a program of the DeKalb County Board of Health, when the mental health center moved out, the outpatient alcoholism program remained and the mansion was renamed the DeKalb Addiction Center (DAC). In addition to continuing to treat alcoholics, the center also treats those addicted to other drugs. The mansion's many rooms have leant themselves very well to the adaptation to a rehabilitation and counseling center, a use it has now had longer than its earlier role as a private home.
The house is a fine example of a mansion built in the Georgian Revival style by a trained Atlanta-based, and Georgia-born architect, Charles E. Frazier (1884-1939). In addition to its size, style, and details, it includes some features not found even in the usual large house: a summer porch/pavilion, a solarium, a third-floor ballroom, and an original Music Room (now DeOvies Hall). The most significant architectural and interior detailing can be seen in DeOvies Hall, with its oak paneling and faux-wood effects on the ceiling, one of the most outstanding large rooms of its kind in Atlanta. Other significant features remaining in the house are the buff-colored brick for not only the main house and its additions but also the pergolas, and the large and various types of fireplaces and mantels, from the large one in the Music Room, to the Italian marble one in the master bedroom suite. The property also features the two historic hothouses/greenhouses.
The public swimming pool opened by 1933 that still remains, in partial ruins, on the property. The pool and bathhouse were opened to the public as the "Briarcliff Pool" to white citizens, many of them neighbors, for a minimum charge. It was a very important, semi-public recreation facility for the Druid Hills area. While there were other public pools, this was perhaps the only one in Atlanta that was on a private estate in the midst of a residential neighborhood. Briarcliff is also significant for the private zoo which was open to the public from 1932 to 1935. It was one of the finest private zoos in the southeast and became the nucleus for the modern Atlanta public zoo.
The homes original builder/owner, and only private citizen to own and live in the house, Asa G. Candler, Jr. (1880-1953), had in the city of Atlanta. He was involved first in the Coca-Cola Company while his father was its president, then in real estate during which time he built the Briarcliff Hotel and owned other major real estate. He operated a public swimming pool from 1933 until the early 1950s, a commercial laundry, and a public zoo from 1932 to 1935 on this property, all three very unusual activities for anyone to do on their own estate. He was also involved in the development of West View Cemetery, Atlanta's main and most prestigious privately-owned cemetery, where he was instrumental in the addition of a mausoleum, West View Abbey, a building of monumental proportions for a Southern cemetery. He also sold the city its first airfield, Candler Field, in 1925, which was the origin of the city's present international airport.
Asa G. Candler, Jr., was involved in many activities that affected the times in which he lived. He is remembered for his private zoo, opened in 1932 on this property, which was one of the best private collections of animals in the southeast, but which caused too much disturbance in the neighborhood and thus he was forced to disband it and donate it to the City of Atlanta in 1935. This was the new beginning for Atlanta's modern zoo. His opening a public swimming pool by 1933 on this property was another major event in the recreation history of the city, something still remembered by those citizens who swam there as children. While this helped add to the activities available to the Druid Hills neighborhood, it was also an attempt at a money-making activity by Mr. Candler. He also opened a commercial laundry on this property, but after it burned in 1943, it was not rebuilt. Besides these unusual activities, Mr. Candler was also involved heavily in real estate in the city and built the nearby Briarcliff Hotel (1925), hoping to influence other investors to move east out Ponce de Leon Avenue toward the area of the hotel.
While this did not happen, the hotel remains, now rehabilitated, as a monument to his foresight. He was also involved in the expansion of West View Cemetery, a prestigious, privately-owned cemetery on the west side of Atlanta. There he was instrumental in 1943 in having West View Abbey built. It is perhaps the largest and most elaborate cemetery mausoleum in the South, built in the Spanish Baroque style. There he installed the Florence Candler Chapel. He and his wife were later buried in the cemetery.
Briarcliff is an excellent example of the use of the Georgian Revival style of architecture, so prevalent in the 1920s, when this house was built. It is also the work of a master, Charles E. Frazier, who designed many of the houses in the West Paces Ferry Road area of Atlanta, an area that remains the most fashionable place to live in the city. This is one of the few houses he is known to have designed in another part of the city during the 1920s. The house has many outstanding features, the most interesting of which is the Music Room (now DeOvies Hall) one of the few "great rooms" in the ancient English Manor house style found in Atlanta. Its elaborate use of wood, and wood-like motifs, and its large fireplace are major features. It is one of the few large houses in Georgia with its original greenhouses and garden terraces at least partially intact.
Building Description
Briarcliff, the Asa G. Candler, Jr. House, and its associated ten-acre site at 1260 Briarcliff Road is located at the intersection of Briarcliff Road and University Drive South in DeKalb County, Georgia, midway between the City of Atlanta and Emory University. Directly across Briarcliff Road is Druid Hill.
The Briarcliff grounds were once much larger than those remaining. They were once pristinely manicured and contained many different features. The property remains enclosed on two sides by a historic granite wall which is seven feet tall by two feet thick. It runs along Briarcliff Road from the entrance to the Georgia Mental Health Institute (adjacent to the property on the south side) to the intersection of University Drive and then west along that street to a point parallel with the east end of the bathhouse. The rest of the property line along University Drive is a cement-block wall and then a chain-link fence.
The mansion is located about 600 feet from the main gate on Briarcliff Road, along an entrance drive.
Outbuildings or the site of former outbuildings on the grounds include the gatehouse, the site of the zoo, the public swimming pool and bathhouse, the remaining terraces and two terrace walls, two pergolas, two hothouses/greenhouses, the garage/carriage house/servants' quarters, and perhaps the covered-over site of the family swimming pool. The gatehouse was added in the 1950s after the site was purchased by the U.S. Government and transferred to the State of Georgia. Just west of the gatehouse, literally in the front yard, is a granite picnic area.
In the northeast corner of the property is the site of the private zoo, built in 1932. The zoo was short-lived, and was dismantled in 1935. All that remains today are concrete slabs and foundations for the cages and animal houses.
The public pool site, in front or east of the main house, was built to be a public pool and opened by 1933. The original swimming pool and two-story bathhouse remain, although in very poor condition. The roof of the bathhouse has collapsed in many places. After the government purchase of the property, the pool was used for a time for therapeutic activities and then closed.
The private, family swimming pool, built in the 1920s, was located to the rear of the house. This pool was filled in during the 1960s.
To the south of the main house were once lush, formal gardens. There was not only a sunken garden (destroyed and covered by a parking lot) at the lowest level but four levels of terraces descending down from the driveway. Three of these remain with historic granite stone walls. When the porte cochere was enlarged into a summer porch, this expanded out onto the first terrace. A series of pergolas connected the upper terrace to the lower, sunken garden level. Two of these pergolas remain.
Just to the west or behind the main house are two large metal-framed hothouses or greenhouses built c. 1922. While in recent years they have been neglected, during 1987-88 they have been repaired and are being readied for reuse. The lower one includes an original tile-roofed maintenance room.
Directly behind the main house, and connected by a modern suspended walkway, is the garage/carriage house/servants' quarters. It is a three-story building built of granite on the lowest level and brick on the above two floors. The lower floor, below the driveway level, was used for maintenance, the driveway level was used for motor vehicles, and the floor above that was for the servants' quarters. Now the top two floors are used for offices and meeting space, while the lowest level is still used for maintenance.
While the original Candler estate consisted of forty-two acres, only ten remain associated with the house. The remaining thirty-two acres, also owned by the same governmental unit, are now the site of the Georgia Mental Health Institute, a hospital and residential facility built in 1965. Besides the hospital facilities, there are also a number of parking lots.
The original grounds of the estate once contained a nine-hole golf course, two tennis courts, an electric generating plant, and a commercial laundry that burned in 1943.
The main house is a three-story with basement mansion whose main block was completed in 1922. The main facade of the main block is a symmetrical, straightforward composition. The skin is of common buff-colored brick with carved stone quoins at the corners. The lintels of the windows are detailed with jack arches and large stone keystones. The semi-circular front portico is approximately 30 feet high and has four free-standing, Corinthian wood columns. The window and door frames have little decoration. The mansion sits on a rough granite rusticated base, which resembles the construction of the wall which surrounds the property. The roof is a new asphalt shingle one, but was originally tile. The third-floor windows are dormers.
The primary entrance to the mansion is through the front portico into the entrance hall. From this level there are two floors above, and a basement below.
The public rooms of the house are located on the first floor. To the left of the front door are those rooms formerly used as the drawing room/library, living room, and solarium. To the right of the entrance are the original family dining room and breakfast room, and through the dining room is the original music room (now DeOvies Hall) and the adjoining guest dining room and kitchen. The original kitchen (now adapted as part of the clinic) is off the breakfast room.
The entry hall now contains a working elevator, placed in the original entrance to the breakfast room, and a pay telephone booth and a restroom, both inserted into the original hallway wall.
In the center of the entry hall there is a grand staircase about six feet wide which rises nine or ten feet, then splits into two smaller runs of stairs that double back to either side on the second floor. The stair is made of wood with excellent detailing.
The entry hall is fifteen feet high from floor to ceiling. The walls have a heavy wood panel to wainscot height and are then painted plaster above. A large, twelve to fifteen inch crown molding goes around the room. There is additional molding on the plane of the ceiling running parallel to, the walls. The present floor is recent parquet flooring. On either side of the front door there are enclosed radiators with original elaborate iron grates.
The original drawing room/library (now an office) to the left (south) of the front entrance has walls covered with hand-carved wood paneling and pilasters of Corinthian capitals. The ceiling has four-inch deep coffers, also of hand-carved wood. The walls and the ceiling appear to have once been painted but now are stripped. The floor is the original, one-inch hardwood floorboards. A large, marble fireplace is located on the south wall of the room.
South of the front entrance, the hall leading south (parallel to the library) leads to the porte cochere entrance/exit door. Across the drive is a summer porch/pavilion built in 1924 for the wedding of the eldest daughter, Lucy Magill Candler. Built two years after the main house was completed, the bricks and other exterior materials match the main house. Only the large, arched windows differ from the front facade, and they were filled in after 1924, as the room was originally open-air. Recently the pavilion was used as a crafts shop.
The room on the opposite side of the hall leading to the porte cochere from the drawing room/library was the original living room, now partitioned into small office cubicles. Some of the original details remaining include door facings, and crown moldings. The fireplace/mantel originally on the north wall was removed. The newly-created hall through this room leads to a door on the west side. This door leads into the solarium.
The solarium is located on the west corner of the south side of the mansion. This is large, high-ceilinged room with large, operable windows on the north and south walls. Radiators enclosed with original ornate iron grates are located below the windows. Between the windows are carved stone piers. The east and west walls of this room once contained large oil murals painted by a friend of Mr. Candler. Only the mural on the west wall remains today. A modern fire escape stair tower was added to the west end of this room with a door entering the solarium. The westernmost window on the northside is now a doorway leading to the modern connecting walkway to the garage.
Returning to the entry hall, the room to the right (north) is the former family dining room now used as offices. The fifteen-foot ceiling remains, as does the ceiling medallion and crown molding. The offices are created from small cubicles with partitions that do not touch the ceiling details. This room originally had two windows and an elaborate fireplace/mantel on the north end. These were removed when the music room was added on that end by 1925.
To the west of the family dining room is a room which was the original breakfast room. While it too has had an office created out of part of it, the rest being used as a passageway, the ceiling and wall molding are intact. Its original entrance from the entry hall was closed when the elevator was added.
The original kitchen is reached through the breakfast room. Much of the original tile floor remains, although the original kitchen area is used as a clinic and for other support services. At the northwest corner of this wing another modern fire escape stair tower has been added. It also connects to the other kitchen wing.
Returning to the original part of the house, the family dining room (now offices) has a newly-built hallway which connects to the music room (now DeOvies Hall) on the north side.
The Music Room, now DeOvies Hall, was added to the original house between 1922 - 1925. At the greatest height this room is three-stories high. It has three large bay windows on the east side. On the exterior the materials and detailing are similar to the original house but the interior space is quite different. The interior walls are covered with thick, richly carved oak panels. Above the wood panels, the walls are made of cut stone. On the north wall of the room is an intricately carved wood screen that once concealed pipes of the organ. On the south wall there is a balcony, accessible from the master bedroom suite, that looks out over DeOvies Hall. The ceiling consists of exposed faux-wood trusses with ornately "carved" faux-wood pendants. The three chandeliers which hang in the space appear to be original. The floor consists of six-inch floorboards held in place by wooden pegs. There is a large nine foot high fireplace in this room. The opening is six feet wide by five feet high. The fireplace itself rises from the floor to ceiling and is made of richly decorated, hand-carved stone. The room to the east of DeOvies Hall, now the recreation room, was originally a guest dining room. It could seat seventy-five. The walls are paint-on-plaster with vinyl floor tiles. The ceiling is made of deep, hand-carved wood coffers. The fireplace in this room was imported from Europe and is of hand-carved, white marble. The room retains its original, elaborate heating grate covers.
A small kitchen was built off the northwest corner of the guest dining room to service the room, and then had a small modern addition added to it which was later connected to the fire stair tower on the old kitchen wing.
The original back stairway, with its original railing, exists behind the entry hall, adjoining the original kitchen wing. It leads both upstairs, as well as to the basement.
The upper two floors are reached from the entrance stairway. It is on the second floor where the "private" functions of the house occurred. The second floor originally contained seven bedrooms, as marked on the original furnishings/interior decorating plans. These seven bedrooms were used by the children, Mr. and Mrs. Candler, and one for guests. The master bedroom suite consisted of two rooms.
The bedrooms were originally numbered from one to seven from the west wing (the bedroom over the solarium was number one) to the northwest wing (bedroom number seven was over the kitchen). They are all now used as meeting rooms.
Bedrooms one and seven, the two originally on the ends of their respective wings, are the only two with any drastic changes. Number One, decorated for a daughter, once stretched across the entire end of the wing. When the modern fire stair tower was added, the room's west windows were removed, and an interior wall added, thus separating it from its original bathroom. Originally, the hall ended at the entrance to this room. A similar change happened to bedroom Number Seven when the modern fire stair tower was added to that wing.
Six original bathrooms existed to serve the seven rooms. The original bath for bedroom Number One exists across the "new" hall from it, while bedrooms Number 2 and 3 shared the bath that remains between those rooms. The master bedroom suite, bedrooms Number Four and Five, has a large bath on the west, with an original shower area, lavatories, etc., and a bath/closet connector on the east linking the two rooms. Bedroom Number Six had its own bath, as did bedroom Number Seven.
The bedrooms all retain their original wall paneling and all have dropped ceilings with acoustical tiles which cover up the original ceiling moldings without harming them. The original doors to the bathrooms, and closets, as well as the original entry doors all remain. The floors have been covered with modern, serviceable tiles.
The master bedroom suite was the most elaborate in the house. /It was originally labelled bedrooms Number Four and Five on the decorators' plans. The walls of the suite consist of paint on plaster. Molding applied to these walls creates the decorative effect of panels. The rooms currently have a suspended, acoustical tile ceiling with the original ceiling above. Each room has an elaborate mantel, the one in room Number Five being of imported white marble with yellow marble inlay. To the right of this mantel (in bedroom Number Five) is a door leading to the "secret" entrance to the balcony of the Music Room (DeOvies Hall). When originally built, there were windows on either side of this mantel.
The third floor contained a fifty by seventy-five foot large ballroom. This room had a vaulted ceiling that was about fourteen feet at its highest point. This room has since been subdivided into meeting rooms and offices. The perimeter walls of the original ballroom can still be identified by the large crown molding. The painted walls of the ballroom were once finished with gold-leaf, and some of this can still be seen shining through where the paint cracks. Currently, the other rooms on the third floor are used as offices or storage, with at least two bathrooms. Presumably, originally, the rooms with windows might have been used for guests, and those without windows for storage. The fire stair towers on the west and northwest wings also rise to this floor and no doubt caused some adjustment in room size and use when built, although the details are not known.
The basement houses the mechanical equipment and contains many storage and maintenance rooms. The most significant feature of the basement is the large, operable, walk-in vault built for Asa Candler, Jr. The structural systems exposed in the basement include concrete piers, beams, slabs, and load-bearing walls.
The floor and the walls are painted concrete and the ceiling consists of large, exposed concrete beams and slabs. Impressions of the wood form work can still be seen on the bottom of the slabs forming the floor deck above the beams. This concrete structure thus produced a very solid house.
The property rests essentially in a residential neighborhood to the north, east, and west. To the south is the Georgia Mental Health Institute, a state-owned facility, built on the rest of the original Candler estate. The house's residential character, although quite large when compared to surrounding house types, still adds to the residential feeling of the area.
First Floor Plan (1987)
Second Floor Plan (1987)
Third Floor Plan (1987)
Front facade (1987)
View from upper pergola, with summer porch on left and portico Straight ahead (1987)
Greenhouses, terraces and pergolas (covered with vines) on the left below the Summer Porch/Pavilion (1987)
Summer Porch, granite terrace walls and upper greenhouse on left (1987)
Both greenhouses under restoration, terrace walls, south wing of house with modern fire stair tower (1987)
Upper greenhouse, with Georgia Mental Health Institute in the background (1987)
View through the porte cochere toward lower greenhouse roof. Room on right is solarium (1987)
Rear of house and south wing with solarium windows below, bedrooms above, fire stair tower, and modern connecting walkway (1987)
Garage/Carriage House/Servants' quarters with modern connecting walkway on the left (1987)
Site of private zoo on northeast corner of property (1987)
