Fortune and folly : the weird and wonderful life of the South's most eccentric millionaire / Sara A.H. Butler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Butler, Sara A. H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Candler, Asa, Jr., 1880-1953.

Candler, Asa.

Candler, Asa, Jr., 1880-1953--Homes and haunts.

Briarcliff Mansion (Atlanta, Ga.).

Chandler family.

Businessmen--Georgia--Atlanta--Biography.

Businessmen.

Atlanta (Ga.)--Biography.

Atlanta (Ga.).

Millionaires--Georgia--Atlanta--Biography.

Millionaires.

Homes.

Georgia--Atlanta.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 222 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Weird and wonderful life of the South's most eccentric millionaire

Place of Publication:

Athens, Georgia : The University of Georgia Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Nestled in the outskirts 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 business with Briarcliff in their names. The mansion and the land it occupies are owned by Emory University, which refers to it as its "Briarcliff Campus." Fortune and Folly, in part, illuminates the largely lost story of how the mansion, and the entire surrounding neighborhood, got its name. But in order to understand the mansion, we have to understand the man who built it. 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 of great successes and greater failures. A man of big vision and bigger adventures, and a socialite whose boisterous, unapologetic personality made him both beloved and reviled in the Atlanta community between 1910 and 1950. But after he passed away in 1953, his stories faded from memory, either tangled up with or overshadowed by his father. It's no mystery why Briarcliff garners attention. It's self-consciously grandiose, built to display maximum grandeur to the neighborhood. It towers over the landscape, set far back from the road behind a filled-in, overgrown pool. Its face is stitched together where a music hall was added two years after the main house was completed, and the bricks don't quite match up. Fortune and Folly offers a deep-dive into the life of Asa Candler, Jr. to excavate a piece-and place-of Atlanta history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1 The early years

A Boy Named Buddie

In the Heart of Dear Old Emory

Go West, Young Man

Mill, Marriage, and Family

Part 2 Young professional

The People's Buddie

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

The Legend of the Merry Widow

Trouble at the Track

The Fall of the Atlanta Speedway

Buddie the Phoenix: The Great Garage Fire of 1911

Part 3 Welcome to Briarcliff

Build Your Own Empire

A New Cycle Begins

Buddie the Phoenix: The Great Sell-Off (Love, Loss, and Real Estate)

Part 4 Midlife and more

Airplanes and the Dark Arts

Lions and Tigers and Elephants?

Laundry and the Eternal

Buddie Candler on Trial

The Long, Slow Slide

Buddie's Best Buds

What's Next for Briarcliff Mansion?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Online version: Butler, Sara A. H. Fortune and folly

ISBN:

9780820365237

0820365238

OCLC:

1389607580