Atlanta residents are no strangers to Hollywood productions. The city has been a popular filming location for years. This Atlanta mansion, however, is more than just a former film location; it’s also rich in Georgia history.
The Briarcliff Mansion is crumbling, unkempt and falling to decay. Its eerie, desolate personality has made it a popular filming spot for Netflix’s Stranger Things, DC’s Doom Patrol and the television shows Vampire Diaries and First Man.
The website asasbriarcliff.com is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the estate and its former resident, Coca-Cola heir Asa Candler, Jr.
From magic shows to exotic zoos, the Briarcliff Mansion — which started out as a humble farm in 1912 — ultimately housed peculiarities that wowed and fascinated Atlanta locals for years.
Completed in 1922, the Atlanta mansion contained 22 rooms.
“While it underwent several revisions throughout its life, ultimately, Briarcliff included 22 rooms of richly carved wood paneling, coffered ceilings, marble fireplaces, two solariums, seven bedrooms with a balcony overlooking the music hall in the master suite, and a ballroom with 14-foot ceilings and gold-leafed walls that housed what was once the largest private magic collection in the world, among other features,” according to asasbriarcliff.com.
In the following years, the mansion evolved into a sprawling estate, featuring servants quarters, tennis courts, a golf course, stables, a farm, greenhouses, both a private and public pool, and the estate’s fabled zoo. In the late 1920s, Candler Jr. began hosting magic parties in the mansion after discovering a love for magic and flying.
In 1931, the Coca-Cola heir purchased an elephant — followed shortly by the acquiring of a bear and several other exotic animals. This was the beginning of the estate’s short-lived zoo, which shut down just four years later in 1935.
After many years, Candler Jr. ultimately sold the estate to the U.S. government. The property was then turned into a mental health hospital.
“As time passed the property was subdivided, the family pool was filled in, the terraces were leveled, and concrete parking lots covered the formal garden and extended grounds,” the website said. “On the site of the former laundry a massive mental health hospital was erected, along with several small satellite homes for long-term hospital residents.”
The property was later purchased by Emory University and transformed into the Briarcliff Campus, which remains abandoned — except for the occasional Hollywood film crew.
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