Briarcliff (mansion)
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Briarcliff
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Briarcliff mansion in disrepair, 2012
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| Location | 1260 Briarcliff Rd., NE, Atlanta, Georgia |
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| Coordinates | 33°47′22″N 84°20′27″W / 33.78944°N 84.34083°WCoordinates: 33°47′22″N 84°20′27″W / 33.78944°N 84.34083°W |
| Built | 1922 |
| Architect | Frazier, Charles E. |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 88001167 |
| Added to NRHP | August 04, 1988 |
Briarcliff was the mansion and estate of Asa Griggs "Buddy" Candler, Jr. (1880–1953), and is now the Briarcliff Campus of Emory University. The estate was built in 1922 on 42 acres on Williams Mill Road, now Briarcliff Road in Druid Hills near Atlanta. Williams Mill Road would be renamed Briarcliff Road in the 1920s after the estate that Asa, Jr. would build there. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Asa, Jr. was the eccentric son of Asa Griggs Candler, co-founder of Coca-Cola. Candler, Jr. helped build his father's business into an empire. He later became a real-estate developer, opening the Briarcliff Hotel at the corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue and N. Highland Ave. in Virginia Highland.
In 1910 Asa, Jr. moved from the fashionable Inman Park neighborhood where his father also had a mansion, to a "ramshackle" farmhouse on Briarcliff Farm, 42 acres (17 ha). The farm was just north of Callanwolde, his brother Charles' estate. Asa, Jr. managed a huge agricultural operation which provided meat and produce to local retailers. Cows, sheep, pigs and chickens were raised on the farm. During World War I, Briarcliff Farm supplied milk to Fort Gordon.
The farm was lauded for its use of electric lights and fans, even individual drinking fountains for the cows, its cleanliness, air and light, resulting in sanitary conditions that led to higher yields and quality.
Briarcliff was built between 1920 and 1922, and featured a Georgian Revival exterior. Architect Dan Bodin assisted Frazier in overseeing the completion. In 1925 Candler had the mansion enlarged, including the music room.
Features of the mansion included:
The estate included:
His father and older brother had Aeolian organs, and to outdo them, in 1925 Candler had a $94,000, 88-rank, 187-stop, cathedral-sized Aeolian installed in the music room. It was the largest privately owned organ in Georgia at the time, and the 8th largest that Aeolian had ever built for a private residence. It was inaugurated in November 1925 in a recital by family friend Palmer Christian, which was broadcast over radio station WSB. In 1952 the organ was given to Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. It was renovated in 2008 and is now known as the Goodwyn-Candler-Panoz organ.
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