Life and Career
Candler was born in Villa Rica, Georgia. He started his business career as a drugstore owner and manufacturer of patent medicines. In 1887 he bought the formula for Coca-Cola from its inventor John Pemberton and several other share-holders for $2,300. The success of Coca-Cola was largely due to Candler's aggressive marketing of the product. Candler made millions of dollars from his investment, allowing him to establish Central Bank and Trust Company, invest in real estate, and became a major philanthropist for the Methodist Church. He gave $1 million plus a land gift to Emory University, at that time a Methodist college, for the school to move from Oxford, Georgia, to Atlanta. This gift was influenced by Asa's younger brother, Methodist Bishop Warren Akin Candler, who became president of Emory. Candler also gave millions to what would later become Emory Hospital. The school's original library which now houses classrooms and a reading room is named for him, as well as endowed chairs in the school's chemistry department. He also donated the land for Candler Park.
Candler Building
In 1906 he completed Atlanta's then-tallest building, the Candler Building, whose intricately detailed 17 stories still stands at Peachtree and Auburn. In 1912 the Candler Building in New York opened.
Candler was elected mayor of Atlanta in 1916 (taking office in 1917) and ended his day-to-day management of the Coca-Cola Company. As mayor he balanced the city budget and coordinated rebuilding efforts after the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 destroyed 1,500 homes. In 1919 he gave most of the stock in The Coca-Cola Company to his children, who later sold it to a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff. In 1922 he donated over 50 acres (200,000 m2) of his Druid Hills holdings to the City of Atlanta for what became Candler Park. Candler suffered a stroke in 1926 and died on March 12, 1929. He is buried at Westview Cemetery in southwest Atlanta. The Candler Field Museum in Williamson, GA has been established to commemorate the original Candler Field airport.
Callan Castle, Inman Park
The Beaux-Arts style Callan Castle (1902-4) was built in Inman Park for Coca-Cola Company founder Asa Candler.
Asa Candler was also a philanthropist, endowing numerous schools and universities as well as the Candler Hospital in Savannah, GA.
Mansions
The Candler home Callan Castle in Inman Park, built 1902-4, still stands as a private home.
The mansion at 1428 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Druid Hills, built 1916 eventually became St. John Chrysostom Melkite Greek Catholic Church.
Children
Callanwolde Estate
Callanwolde is a Gothic-Tudor mansion on a 12.5 acre estate in Druid Hills, adjacent to Atlanta, Georgia. From 1920 to 1959, it was the family home of Charles Howard Candler (1878-1957), the eldest son of Asa Griggs Candler, the co-founder of Coca-Cola.
Howard Candler was chairman of the board of trustees of Emory University from 1929 until his death in 1957. In 1959 his widow donated Callanwolde estate and many furnishings, to Emory, which then sold it to the First Christian Church, which owned it until DeKalb County purchased it in 1971.
Now the property houses the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, which offers classes and workshops for all ages in visual, literary and performing arts. Special performances, gallery exhibits, outreach programs and fundraising galas are presented throughout the year. The name "Callanwolde" is based on an ancestor's home in Callan, Ireland, plus the Old English word for "woods" ("wolde").
Callanwolde is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Asa's eldest son, Charles Howard Candler (1878–1957), was chairman of the board of trustees of Emory University. His family estate was Callanwolde on Briarcliff Road in Druid Hills, now a fine arts center.
The second son, Asa G. Candler, Jr. (1880–1953), eccentric, alcoholic and depressed, became a real-estate developer, opening the Briarcliff Hotel. His mansion and estate - also on Briarcliff Road in Druid HIlls - was turned into an alcohol rehab center, then a psychiatric hospital, and is now Emory's Briarcliff campus. Asa Jr.'s menagerie of animals enabled a major expansion of Zoo Atlanta in the 1930's.
Asa Griggs Candler, Jr. (August 27, 1880–January 11, 1953) 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.
Briarcliff Hotel
The Candlers sold their estate to the General Services Administration in 1948. The planned veterans' hospital never emerged, and the estate was used to house the Georgian Clinic (later the DeKalb County Addiction Center), the first alcohol treatment facility in Georgia - poignant as Asa Jr. was a severe alcoholic himself. Later the complex housed the Georgia Mental Health Institute. The complex is now the Briarcliff campus of Emory University.
Candler lived out his life in the penthouse of the Briarcliff Hotel, and was buried in Westview Cemetery.
Hobbies and Eccentricities
Candler was a big game hunter and aviation enthusiast.
He was an alcoholic and suffered from depression, though an interview in 1951 states that his troubles were mitigated by a "surrender to God".
Candler collected exotic birds and animals in a menagerie held at his estate in Druid Hills in Atlanta. The collection included four elephants named Coca, Cola, Pause, and Refreshes. In 1935 Candler, in financial trouble. He put up his pipe organ for sale. A neighbor sued 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". He gave away his entire menagerie of animals to Zoo Atlanta.
Third son, Walter T. Candler(1885–1967), businessman, philanthropist, and horse sportsman. His estate was Lullwater, which is now the residence of the Emory President, a park, and land used for the Veterans' Administration complex in Druid Hills
Lullwater Park
Samuel Candler Dobbs
Samuel Candler Dobbs was president and chairman of The Coca-Cola Company, from 1919 to 1922.
Early life and education
Dobbs was born in 1869 in Georgia. He was the son of Harris Henry Dobbs, and cousin of Asa Griggs Candler, founder of The Coca-Cola Company.
Career
Dobbs began his career as an Atlanta-based Coca-Cola salesman, during which he persuaded Joe Biedenharn of the Biedenharn Candy Company to set up a Coca-Cola dispenser in this store and order the beverage on a regular basis, thereby fueling sales and recognition of the Coca-Cola name. Dobbs later became the company's sales manager and president.
In 1909, Dobbs became president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, now the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and began to make speeches on the subject. In 1911, he was involved in the adoption of the "Ten Commandments of Advertising", one of the first codes of advertising developed by groups of advertising firms and individual businesses. He is credited with beginning the "truth-in-advertising" campaign that led to the creation of the Better Business Bureau.
Philanthropy and legacy
In January 1939, Dobbs made a $1,000,000 unrestricted gift to the Emory University. Several endowed chairs are named after him.
Links:
Warren Akin Candler, for whom Emory's Candler School of Theology is named.
Samuel Candler Dobbs
Callanwolde Estate (Fine Arts Center)
Photos of Briarcliff Hotel
Lullwater Park
Emory University
Samuel C. Dobbs ~ Advertising Hall of Fame
Warren Akin Candler
Candler Building
Source: Internet
