Asa G. Candler Jr.

Asa Griggs "Buddie" Candler Jr. (August 27, 1880 – January 11, 1953) was an American businessman and the son of Asa Griggs Candler, founder of The Coca-Cola Company. 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 the Virginia–Highland neighborhood of Atlanta.

Life and career

Education and career

Asa Jr. attended Emory College at its original campus in Oxford, Georgia and was a classmate of the future vice president Alben W. Barkley.[1] After graduation he helped set up bottling plants for Coca-Cola across North America. He also supervised construction of various office buildings in Atlanta and of Candler Airport, now known as the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Additionally, for more than 20 years, Candler was involved in running Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, where he built Westview Abbey, one of the largest community mausoleums in the world.

Personal life

Candler was a big game hunter and aviation enthusiast. He participated in many local and national air races.

Another hobby was magic and sleight of hand tricks which he learned on his travels to China and India. A 1930 report described how his mansion had a room full of equipment for magic shows, and that every spring he would hold a "high-jinks" magic show and party for friends.[10]

Candler collected exotic birds and animals in a menagerie at his estate with cages designed by architect Bodin.[5] He may have bought the animals while traveling in Europe from a down-and-out circus owner.[11] The collection included a Bengal tiger, four lions, a black leopard, a gorilla, baboons, and six elephants: Coca, Cola, Pause, Refreshes, Refreshing, and Delicious.[8] In 1935 Candler was in financial trouble. He put up his pipe organ for sale.

Candler's neighbor sued him and won a $10,000 settlement because "a baboon jumped over the wall of the zoo and devoured $60 in currency out of her purse".[12] He gave away his entire menagerie of animals to the Atlanta City zoo at Grant Park (now Zoo Atlanta).

Marriages

Candler's first marriage was in 1901 to Helen Magill, daughter of the late Colonel John H. Magill, former editor of the Hartwell, Georgia, Sun and Laura Eberhardt Magill. Helen was "a leading figure in local social and civic circles" in Atlanta both before and during her marriage active in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Fine Arts Club, the Atlanta Woman's Club, and the Atlanta Garden Club.[13] Helen was frequently lauded in the local press for her elegant "toilets", a term used at the time for dresses or gowns.[14] Helen died in January 1927, aged 40. Asa Jr.'s uncle Bishop Warren Akin Candler officiated at her funeral, and she was buried, as her husband later was, in Westview Cemetery.[13]

In October 1927 Bishop Warren Candler married Asa Jr. to his second wife Florence Adeline Stephenson of Lithonia, Georgia, who for nine years had been his secretary.[15]

alt	Asa Griggs "Buddie" Candler Jr.
birth date	August 27, 1880
death date	January 11, 1953
death place	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
occupation	Businessman
father	Asa Griggs Candler
spouse	Helen Magill (m. 1901-1927) Florence Adeline Stephenson (m. 1927)
children	7
relatives	Charles Howard Candler Sr. (sibling)

Life and career

Education and career

Briarcliff Farm

Briarcliff estate and mansion

Sale of the estate

Personal life

Marriages

Further reading

External links

References

Children

Religion