Drive down Briarcliff Road past University Drive and you'll pass a stretch of chain-link fencing, overgrown lawn, and a padlocked gate that most Druid Hills residents have driven by for years without a second look. Behind it sits a 42-acre estate that's been sealed off since the late 1990s, visited mostly by film crews scouting locations for shows like Stranger Things and The Vampire Diaries. This fall, for the first time in almost thirty years, that changes. Not with a ribbon cutting. With a construction crew.
A mile or so away, on a different 12-acre estate that's been anything but sealed off, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center is doing what it does every year: setting up chairs on the lawn for another season of live jazz. Same neighborhood, same era of mansion, same family name on the deed. Completely different fall.
The story of these two properties is worth untangling, because it says something about how this particular season in Druid Hills is going to feel different from the ones before it, even as most of the neighborhood's traditions carry on exactly as they always have.
Two Brothers, Two Mansions, One Neighborhood
Callanwolde was built in 1920 for Charles Howard Candler, eldest son of Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler. Two years later, in 1922, his brother Asa Griggs "Buddy" Candler Jr. finished construction on Briarcliff, his own estate a short drive away, complete with greenhouses, a ballroom, and at one point a private menagerie that included elephants and a baboon. Both houses are on the National Register of Historic Places. Both brothers built their fortunes into Atlanta real estate that's still standing a century later.
Press coverage at the time called Buddy's estate "40 Acres of Fairyland." The nickname didn't age well. After Candler's death, the property became a state-run mental health facility, which closed in 1997. Emory University took over the land the following year and has kept the buildings standing mostly through what one longtime observer of the property called benevolent neglect, chasing off vandals and renting the grounds to film productions whose repairs were often the only maintenance the place received.
Callanwolde, meanwhile, has spent the last several decades as a working nonprofit arts center, hosting classes, weddings, and concerts on its Tudor Revival lawn. The building never sat empty long enough to need a rescue.
What Actually Breaks Ground This Fall
In November 2022, DeKalb County commissioners approved a plan from Galerie Living to redevelop the Briarcliff estate into Corso Druid Hills, a 500-unit senior living community built on a long-term ground lease with Emory. Of the original 42-acre estate, Emory is keeping roughly 10 acres, including its Library Service Center, which leaves about 32 acres for the Corso campus itself. Building A, the former mental health hospital and Stranger Things filming location, is slated for demolition to make room for the new construction.
The mansion itself is not being torn down. Galerie has committed to a full restoration, and the plan calls for the house to reopen as a public-facing amenity with restaurants, a floral shop, and event space, according to Atlanta Magazine's reporting on the project. The redevelopment will also include independent living cottages and bungalows with full kitchens, 10-foot ceilings, and eight-foot doorways, plus a category the developer calls "City Homes," units with a private front door and patio facing the central courtyard, according to reporting in the Atlanta Jewish Times.
Here's the part worth paying attention to if you live on Springdale, Lullwater, or the stretch of Briarcliff near University Drive: the timeline keeps moving. Reporting from late 2024 suggested Galerie expected the community to be operational by the end of 2026. The developer's own current site now lists groundbreaking for this fall, with occupancy expected before 2030. That's not a delay measured in months. It's a multi-year push, which means the fencing, tree work, and truck traffic starting this fall aren't a short-term inconvenience. Plan on construction being part of the Briarcliff streetscape for several falls to come, not just this one.
The Corridor Is Already Filling In
Construction projects don't usually attract new restaurants before they've broken ground, but Briarcliff has picked up two independent tenants this year that used to skip the corridor entirely.
Novo Cucina, an Italian concept from the team behind restaurants in Toco Hills and Dunwoody, opened for takeout on Briarcliff this spring while it waits on a liquor license. San Francisco Coffee, an Atlanta favorite better known for its Emory Village and Midtown locations, is expanding onto Briarcliff as well. Neither business is directly tied to the Corso project, but both chose a stretch of road that independent operators have historically passed over in favor of Toco Hills or Emory Point. Whether that's a bet on the neighborhood's future foot traffic or simple opportunism in an under-served corridor, the practical effect for residents is the same: a sit-down coffee option and a pasta pickup spot that didn't require a drive to Decatur or Toco Hills last year.
Charles Howard's House Keeps Doing What It's Always Done
While one Candler mansion spends this fall behind fencing, the other is hosting its usual autumn lineup. Jazz on the Lawn returns to Callanwolde with a mix of returning and new performers, part of a tradition organizers describe as bringing nationally recognized artists and local favorites together for evenings under the stars. When the jazz season wraps, Callanwolde's Winter House takes over the grounds for a roughly ten-day run in late November and early December, a holiday walkthrough that tends to sell out its limited window.
It's a useful reminder that not every historic estate in this neighborhood is mid-transformation. Some of them just keep hosting concerts.
Fernbank Swaps Its Cast for the Season
Down Clifton Road, Fernbank Museum of Natural History rotates its special exhibits on its own clock, and the 2026 lineup gives residents a real reason to go back even if they've already done the dinosaur plaza this year. Current and upcoming exhibits include:
- T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, a deep dive into the biology of the museum's signature dinosaur
- Planet Ice, covering the last ice age
- Flight of Butterflies
- The Secret World of Elephants
Fernbank also added a live-animal component this year: an Orkin Discovery Zone exhibit featuring a Mexican red-kneed tarantula named Court-knee, one of three live animals now part of the museum's educational displays, according to CBS Atlanta's coverage of the opening.
The Fall Festival Doesn't Care About Any of This
None of the Corso timeline, the new coffee shop, or the museum's exhibit swap changes what the Druid Hills Civic Association has planned for its own fall calendar. The Emory Village Fall Festival returns near Halloween with its costume contest, cash prizes for winners of all ages, and a parade through the village. It's one of the oldest fixtures on the neighborhood's civic calendar, and it will happen this year exactly as it has in years past, construction fencing on Briarcliff notwithstanding.
What This Fall Actually Adds Up To
Most of what defines a Druid Hills autumn isn't changing. The jazz still happens on Charles Howard's lawn. The dinosaurs still rotate at Fernbank. The village still throws its costume parade. What's different this year is that all of it now unfolds next to an active job site on ground that's sat behind a locked gate since before most current residents moved in. That's the real marker of this particular fall: not a new opening, but the first visible sign, after almost three decades of quiet, that the other Candler mansion is finally getting noisy again.
If you're curious about how a project like this tends to ripple through a neighborhood's character over the next few years, or you just want a local read on what's changing block by block, Golley Realty Group knows this stretch of Druid Hills as well as anyone. You can also browse more on the neighborhood at our Druid Hills guide, or dig into the area's historic housing stock in our post on buying a historic home in Druid Hills. Talk to a Decatur Neighborhood Expert whenever you're ready.
