How this now abandoned Atlanta estate once housed over 100 circus animals (a case study in the need for strong protective real estate covenants)

Asa “Buddy” Candler, Jr.’s cryptic 1931 telegram sent from Germany to his architect in Atlanta was likely met with some confusion.  The architect might have even thought it was a joke.  But as his architect and neighbors quickly discovered, it was not. 

There are several accounts of how the private zoo on Candler’s Briarcliff estate near the Emory University main campus came to be. One account has Candler drinking in a bar in Germany and initially agreeing to finance the performances of a bankrupt circus for a season, but after a few drinks, deciding to buy the circus outright.  According to this account, Candler wires his architects the message “bought circus build zoo” before heading to bed to sleep it off.  One might suspect that when the sun peaked over the horizon the next morning, and the memories of the preceding evening began to slowly filter in, that this decision might have been reconsidered.  But to the dismay of his architects and later his Druid Hills neighbor’s, it wasn’t.

The first step after buying a circus in a bar in Europe is to figure out how to transport the circus.  Candler had the circus animals sedated and shipped in crates to New York City.  One story has a trainer feeding the animals Jamaican rum to sedate them and joking that "neither the animals nor their future owner cared that they were defying the Prohibition laws,” according to Ann Abrams in her book on the Candler family, Formula for Fortune (p.255). 

When the animals arrived in New York, Candler then had to figure out how to get them to Atlanta.  The Emory University rail depot happened to be just a couple of blocks from his Atlanta mansion. In a stroke of logistical genius, Candler convinced Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus to lend him several railroad circus boxcars.  The plan worked well “until one shipload of animals docked in New York... had to wait several days before a circus train was available.” (Abrams, Formula for Fortune p. 255)  Undoubtedly using his connections as the son of the founder of the Coca Cola Company, Candler asked the mayor of New York if the animals could just be kept at Madison Square Gardens.  Foreshadowing future events in the soon-to-be not as quiet and serene Druid Hills neighborhood, some of the animals broke out of their cages and went on a rampage in the area surrounding Madison Square Gardens.  The rampaging (perhaps hungover) animals damaged several store fronts and the merchandise inside, which resulted in several lawsuits for Candler

When the animals arrived at the Emory University Depot, Candler employees tasked with unloading the animals quickly realized the endeavor was a circus trick in itself. Like the journey from Europe, the animals were sedated on this trip as well with plenty of rum and sedatives.  Many of the four-legged passengers were quite reluctant to leave their boxcars.  According to Abrams, the most difficult to coax out were “Coca” and “Cola,” two baby elephants. 

After the animals were removed from the train, they were corralled and led in a parade through Druid Hills neighborhood to Candler’s Briarcliff estate. Adults and children lined the streets of the neighborhood to witness this incredible scene. 

Candler was undaunted by the lawsuits from the mayhem in New York and the logistical issues of getting the animals from Germany to New York to Atlanta.  In fact, Candler doubled-down and acquired additional animals for the new zoo “including pumas, panthers, lions, bears, leopards, chimpanzees, baboons, monkeys, buffalos, elephants and a number of exotic birds.”  (Abrams, Formula for Fortune, p. 254) 

Abrams writes “with a budget of over $50,000 Asa apparently saw himself as a modern Noah perpetuating the species in what was described as the finest private collection of animals in the South.” (Abrams, Formula for Fortune, p. 254)

That summer, the zoo was opened to the public two days a week. Candler drilled a well on the property and built a new swimming pool complete with a fountain to store drinking water for the animals.  Candler of course built this pool and fountain in the front yard of the estate fully visible from the street.  The estate began to look more like an amusement park than a residence. Adjacent to the pool, Candler built a concession stand and lockers and lit it all up with neon lights.

By 1933, Candler’s zoo held over 100 animals including six elephants, a Bengal tiger and two polar bears. Unfortunately though, the animals had a way of slipping out of their cages and over the walls of the grand estate. Once off campus, the escapees would proceed to cause pandemonium in the Druid Hills neighborhood. “Neighbors phoned about sightings of birds and beasts rampaging their gardens, destroying their roses and frightening their children” (Abrams, Formula for Fortune, p. 257). Candler's employees spent many days and nights scouring the nearby properties for animals which had escaped. One neighbor complained to police "that a loose baboon in her yard had allegedly climbed into the front seat of her car and grabbed her purse; then she fell and broke her leg in several places as she tried to wrest the bag away” (Abrams, Formula for Fortune, p. 257)  Another neighbor sued Candler claiming that Candler was a violating the deed restrictions which required the properties in the neighborhood to be used for residential purposes only.  Candler purportedly referred to the enterprise as his “zoological garden” rather than a commercial enterprise. 

The mounting costs and all of the legal issues proved too much. Candler ultimately donated the animals to the Atlanta zoo in 1935. Candler kept the front yard pool open though to the public for another 10 years. Today, the property sits vacant and overgrown. The property is owned by Emory University and is occasionally used as a filming location. There are current efforts to preserve the estate with one idea being to renovate it and convert it to a bed and breakfast……for people though, not circus animals. 

View of the now overgrown pool and fountain.

Archway in the pool/concession area.