Another of my favorite sites in Georgia is just down the road from Dowdell's Knob (see post of August 18, 2009).
Built by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932 on a farm he bought just outside of Warm Springs, the Little White House was one of only two homes ever owned by our nation's longest serving President. It is beautifully preserved today as a memorial to the man who guided the United States through both the Great Depression and World War II.
Roosevelt first came to Warm Springs in 1924 after he heard of progress being made by polio patients who swam in water from the warm mineral springs that flowed down from the sides of Pine Mountain. He had been stricken with polio and was desperate for a cure. The water and people of Warm Springs were not able to cure the future President's body, although his swims there did improve his physical condition, but they did cure his mind, inspiring him to return to political life despite the paralysis resulting from his fight with polio.
FDR was elected Governor of New York in the years following his treatment at Warm Springs, but he had fallen so deeply in love with the small Georgia community and his people that he returned often. It was on one of these visits that he decided to buy a farm on the slopes of Pine Mountain and it was in 1932 that he built the beautiful frame home known today as the Little White House. That same year he was elected President of the United States.
Roosevelt continued to come home to the Little White House throughout his years as President and it was here, while posing for a portrait in 1945, that he collapsed and died.
To learn more about this precious Georgia historic site, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/littlewhitehouse.
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