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Little White House

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For the house used by Harry S. Truman in Key West, Florida, see Harry S. Truman Little White House.
Little White House
Little White House is located in Georgia
Little White House
LocationWarm Springs, Georgia
Built1932
Part ofWarm Springs Historic District (ID74000694[1])
Designated CPJuly 30, 1974

The Little White House, in the Warm Springs Historic District in Warm Springs, Georgia, is the name of the personal retreat of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[2] He first came to Warm Springs for polio treatment, and liked the area so much that, as Governor of New York, he had a home built on nearby Pine Mountain. The house was finished in 1932. Roosevelt kept the house after he became President, using it as a Presidential retreat.

The Little White House was the site of President Roosevelt's death. The house was opened to the public as a museum in 1948. A major attraction of the museum is the portrait that artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff was painting of him when he died, now known as the "Unfinished Portrait." It hangs near a finished portrait that Shoumatoff completed later from sketches and memory.

Little White House Historic Site is operated by the State of Georgia and is also known as Roosevelt's Little White House Historic Site.

History

Historic American Buildings Survey photograph of the Little White House
FDR at the Little White House a few days before his death (April 1945)
Walk of Flags and Stones
Bedroom where Roosevelt died

Residents of Georgia, particularly Savannah, Georgia, began spending vacations at Bullochville, Georgia, in the late 18th century as a way to escape yellow fever, attracted by the number of warm springs in the vicinity. In the late 19th century traveling to the warm springs was a desirable way to get away from Atlanta. Traveling by railroad to Durand, Georgia, people would then go to Bullochville. One of the places benefiting from this was the Meriwether Inn. Once the automobile became popular in the early 20th century, the tourists began going elsewhere, starting the decline of the Meriwether Inn.[3][4]

In 1921 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aged 39, was diagnosed with polio.[5][6] One of the few things that seemed to ease his pain was immersion in warm water, bathing and engaging in physical exercise. His first time in Warm Springs, Georgia, was October 1924. He went to a resort in the town that featured a permanent 88-degree natural spring, but whose main house was described as "ramshackle". Roosevelt bought the resort and the 1,700-acre (6.9 km2) farm surrounding it in 1927 (the resort would become known as the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation). Five years later in 1932, after winning the presidency for the first time, he ordered a six-room Georgia pine house to be built on the property. This house was FDR’s retreat throughout his presidency and became known as the Little White House. In total, he made 16 trips to the Little White House during his presidency, usually spending two to three weeks at a time, as it took a day to reach Warm Springs from Washington, D.C., by train.[7]

Floor plan

The Little White House is a six-room Colonial Revival structure made of Georgia pine. Three of the rooms were bedrooms: one for Roosevelt, one for his wife Eleanor Roosevelt, and one for his personal secretary. The other rooms were an entrance hall, a living room, and a kitchen. Access to the Little White House was from an unpaved road that now only exist in parts. The garage-servant's quarters was built in 1932, followed by the single-story frame cottage that served as a guesthouse in 1933, and finally a cottage for Georgia Wilkins in 1934. Wilkins' family was the original owner of the property.[8]

Roosevelt would use the Little White House as a base to replace Georgia politicians who refused to follow his policies. This was most notable in 1938 when Roosevelt tried and failed to have United States Senator Walter George replaced with a Roosevelt loyalist, even though both were Democrats.[8]

World War II did affect Roosevelt's time at the Little White House. The only year he did not go to the Little White House was 1942, as he was preoccupied by the beginnings of US involvement in World War II. It is believed that he vacationed as much as he did in 1943-1945 at the Little White House because his real love for vacations, sailing on the Atlantic, was too dangerous to do during wartime, even if it was just on inland waterways like the Chesapeake Bay or the Potomac River. One major change was that soldiers from Fort Benning were stationed at the Little White House to patrol the woods surrounding the farm.[9]

His last trip to the Little White House was on March 30, 1945. He felt he did not achieve enough rest at his Hyde Park home. According to some observers at Warm Springs, Roosevelt looked "ghastly" and his usual cordial waves to the residents were weak. Unlike his previous visits, he avoided the swimming pool he used to comfort himself in previous trips. On April 12, 1945, FDR was sitting for a portrait at the Little White House when he suffered a stroke. Roosevelt died two hours later of cerebral hemorrhage.[10]

Most of Roosevelt's property was willed to Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, which gained control of all the properties in 1948 except for the Georgia Wilkins Cottage, which Wilkins lived in until her 1959 death. Both John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Jimmy Carter in 1976 used the property for their campaigns to become president; Carter even launched his campaign there.[8]

Current

Today the Little White House is part of Georgia's state park system and is open to visitors; it has been preserved to look almost exactly as it did the day FDR died. Items on display at the facility, besides the Unfinished Portrait, include his customized 1938 Ford convertible and his stagecoach.[8][11]

On August 9, 2011, the McCarthy Cottage and the E.T. Curtis Cottage next to the Little White House were destroyed in a fire. The cause is being investigated, but suspicion is being focused on lightning and thunderstorms that were in the area at the time.[12][13]

FDR's home with rebuilt Guesthouse and servant quarters in 2014.
FDR's home with rebuilt Guesthouse and servant quarters in 2014.

References

  1. ^ "NPS Focus". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  2. ^ http://www.gastateparks.org/LittleWhiteHouse
  3. ^ Georgia State Parks - History
  4. ^ Warm Springs Historic District NRHP nomination form
  5. ^ "F. D. Roosevelt Ill of Poliomyelitis". The New York Times. September 16, 1921. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  6. ^ Ward, Geoffrey C.; Burns, Ken (2014). The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 236. ISBN 9780307700230.
  7. ^ Walsh, Kenneth T. From Mount Vernon to Crawford (Hyperion, 2005) p.96,97
  8. ^ a b c d Warms Springs NRHP form
  9. ^ Walsh p.97-98
  10. ^ Walsh p.102-104
  11. ^ Georgia State Parks - Roosevelt's Little White House Historic Site
  12. ^ Historic Home Frequented by FDR destroyed by fire
  13. ^ Fire destroys Warm Springs home built by FDR, Fran Jeffries, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 9, 2011
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