Welcome to the Little White House
A Virtual Exploration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia
Get Me to the Country
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took frequent trips to Warm Springs, Georgia, from 1924 until his passing in 1945. Here, a motorcade for the President and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt leaves a train station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a Secret Service escort assuring security among thronging crowds. Locals regarded him "fondly, even reverently" and saw the president as "part friend, part father figure, and, because of the role he played in pulling the South out of the depression, part savior as well."
Roosevelt's Little White House State Historic Site Map (2016) by Georgia Public BroadcastingGeorgia Public Broadcasting
President Roosevelt's Little White House (2015) by Georgia Public BroadcastingGeorgia Public Broadcasting
The six-room house was built for nearly $8,738 in the 1930s, which would be over $160,000 today.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Wheelchair (2019) by Georgia Public BroadcastingGeorgia Public Broadcasting
In August 1921, Roosevelt fell ill while on a family vacation and was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors diagnosed him with poliomyelitis, or polio.
FDR was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public, and great care was taken to prevent any portrayal in the press that would highlight his disability.
President Roosevelt's Little White House (2015) by Georgia Public BroadcastingGeorgia Public Broadcasting
Roosevelts-Little White House (1938) by Margaret Bourke-WhiteLIFE Photo Collection
The president's Little White House was a modest and serene cottage retreat.
Although he was only able to visit intermittently during World War II, his time there in the late 1920s and 1930s is believed to have inspired New Deal programs like the Rural Electrification Administration.
President Roosevelt At Warm Springs (1940-12) by Thomas McavoyLIFE Photo Collection
While at Warm Springs, the president continued his work as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief.
As the New Georgia Encyclopedia explains, "The town ... welcomed guests from around the nation and the world; scientists from Austria and Germany visited the Little White House, as did government leaders, national news correspondents, business leaders, and occasionally Hollywood stars."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Chair (2019) by Georgia Public BroadcastingGeorgia Public Broadcasting
The president often worked at a card table while sitting in his favorite leather chair.
He was doing so on April 12, 1945, while having his portrait painted. It was during that sitting that he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
The President's Unfinished Portrait
On April 12th, 1945, President Roosevelt was sitting for a portrait with painter Elizabeth Shoumatoff. After sitting for most of the morning and a few hours after lunch, he complained of pain in his head and slumped forward. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was declared deceased within hours. If the artist immortalizing him was stunned, her feelings certainly echoed those of the nation and the larger world. After hearing the news, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom described feeling as though he had "been struck a physical blow."
National Park Service
Roosevelt's Little White House State Historic Site
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