The Little White House in Georgia, part 1

The day after visiting Callaway Gardens we decided to go back to the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia.  It is only 5 miles from the F. D. Roosevelt State Park where we were renting a cabin.  It was a very warm and sunny day.  We had visited the Little White House already in the early 1980s with our young daughters then again more than 10 years ago but I did not take many pictures with my film camera then.  I do have old postcards though showing the house and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's (FDR) cars.  (Click on collage twice to embiggen.)

Growing up in Paris, France, I did not know much about President Roosevelt.  I knew that it was the name of a Paris Metro station, on the Champs-Elysees, that I used often.  It has been remodeled many times as it is in the tourist area.  I remember it with white tile walls, blue signs and wooden benches.  Then the fancy yellow seats came and now the signs are in French, Japanese, Russian, Chinese and Arabic with modern seats  - the entrance on the avenue has not been changed.

The areas around the Little White House in Warm Springs has also changed.  Now there is a large avenue going to the house and a new museum, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Museum which opened in April 2004.  It is a "green" building, quite large, with an 80-seat theater.  We started our visit there and watched a short film, narrated by Walter Cronkite, about FDR and his connection to Georgia.

The museum contains many exhibits illustrating FDR's life and programs, informative storyboards, personal effects and family tree.  In my post of December 13, 2012 "Christmas at Bulloch Hall..." I explained that Mittie Bulloch of Georgia had married Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.  Her granddaughter was Eleanor Roosevelt who married Franklin D. Roosevelt, her fifth cousin, once removed.  The Roosevelt's ancestor was a Dutch immigrant, Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, who arrived in New York City - then named Nieuw Amsterdam - around the mid 1600s.  Claes's last name can be translated as "son of Marten of the rose field."  His son Nicholas changed the name to Roosevelt.  Claes had two grandsons, Johannes and Jacobus - FDR descended from Jacobus and Eleanor from Johannes.  Franklin and Eleanor were married on March 17, 1905 and had six children (one died at 8 months.)  Franklin decided to have a career in politics and in 1911 he was elected a New York State senator.  At that time he was an athletic man, healthy and about 6'2" tall (1m88.)

In August 1921, aged 39, FDR contracted polio while vacationing in New Brunswick, Canada.  This resulted in permanent paralysis from his waist down.  In 1924 a friend told him about a young polio victim who had improved after swimming in the 88-degree mineral-rich waters in Warm Springs, a small town in Meriwether County Georgia.

FDR came to Warm Springs and after 6 weeks felt that he could walk in the pool and exercise up to two hours.  This small health improvement from the Georgia pools gave him the impetus to run again for public office.  Four years later he ran for Governor of New York and won and served there until the end of 1932 when he was elected the 32nd President of the United States.  He was then president for three consecutive terms - from 1933 till his death in 1945.

 FDR was so happy in Warm Springs, away from the stress of Washington, that in 1932 he built a cottage near the therapeutic pools - the cottage became known as "The Little White House."  FDR drove all around Meriwether County in his modified Ford and would stop for impromptu "roadside conferences" with local people, farmers, families, laborers, and sharecroppers, black and white.

Several of FDR's programs evolved from conversations with the people around Warm Springs.  They would tell "Mr. Franklin" their problems and concerns.  An exhibit shows the typical small rural house from that area.  When FDR found out that the electricity bill for his small cottage in Georgia was more than the bill he paid for his house in New York he brought cheaper electricity to the community - electricity to rural areas was included in his New Deal program.  (Click on collage to enlarge for reading.)

From 1924 until 1945 FDR made 41 trips to Warm Springs.  He fished in the Flint River, drove around the countryside and loved to listen to fiddle playing.  Long before elected president he had listened to the locals' problems, issued and concerns.  He saw the sharecroppers use mules and field hands to farm the impoverished land and being paid $1.50 per day for their hard work.  In rural Georgia the Great Depression hurt people terribly.  FDR loved to stay on nearby Dowdell's Knob on top of Pine Mountain and meditate on this.  He turned much of what he learned from his visits to Georgia into programs through New Deal legislation.  Shown in top of collage below in color is Dowdell's Knob, then it is President Roosevelt signing the G.I. Bill, a poster about his Social Security program, a poster for the March of Dimes that was founded by FDR on January 3,1938 under the name "National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis" (the Republican Party is trying to dismantle many of his programs now) and a storyboard about Warm Springs.

"... Yesterday morning I went up to the top of Pine Mountain.  There, stretching out for many miles to the horizon was a large portion of Meriwether County.  It was good looking country - and good to live in..."  FDR April 1928

FDR designed special hand controls for his cars so he could drive them himself.  Each year the State of Georgia issued specialty license plate for his vehicles.

There were many fascinating items, documents, etc., in the museum, such as his stamp collection, his wheel chair, his black cape, the breakfast service he used during his visits, the patio furniture of the Little White House and so much more.  I could have stayed hours in this museum as it contains a great collection of mementos and historical items.

As we were leaving the museum we passed by four display cases containing seventy walking canes that were given to President Roosevelt as presents over the years - here are some of them below.

Walking back into the sun we stopped at the Memorial Fountain.  It is at the base of The Walkway of the State Flags and Stones - a wide paved walkway with flags of the 50 US states and District of Columbia and sample rock contributed from each state as a tribute to President Roosevelt.  Under each flag is a specimen of a native stone quarried from that state with an information plaque.  In 1959 it was updated to include Alaska and Hawaii.  Most of the stones are in the shape of their individual state.  The lieutenant governor of Hawaii offered a rectangular solid black block of Pahoehoe lava for the walkway on Hawaii Day in 1959.

We walked into the Little White House compound through the "bump gate."  This is the original gate designed to pivot on its center post and open when pushed with FDR's automobile bumper when he was driving in and out.

From the gate above can be seen the US flag ahead flying on a pole.  A plaque states that it has 48 stars as this was the type of flag that was flown there on President Roosevelt's death on 12 April 1945.

Then we entered the Little White House grounds ... to be continued in part 2.