WARM SPRINGS EXPEDITION!

Warm Springs, Georgia, is a tiny town (population around 500) about an hour southwest of Atlanta.  If you have never heard of it, don't feel bad, as neither had I until I attended a week long Road Scholar (www.roadscholar.org ) program in Hyde Park, New York, that was an in-depth study of the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   This placard outside the visitor center gives a synopsis of the historical importance of The Little White House and Warm Springs. 

The Little White House was the personal retreat of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, and is located in the National Historic District of Warm Springs, Georgia ( www.warmspringsga.com ).   Because FDR liked the area ever since he started visiting in the 1920's, he had a home built on nearby Pine Mountain, when he was Governor of New York.  The house was finished in 1932.  Roosevelt kept the house after he became president, using it as his presidential retreat.  During FDR's presidency and the Great Depression, he developed many New Deal Programs (such as Rural Electrification Administration) based on his experiences in the small town of Warm Springs.  (This fact makes me daydream about a powerful president building a presidential retreat near where I live, so that the POTUS could see what    S  l  o  w      I  n  t  e  r  n  e  t   is available in the rural area where I live, and take action to correct the situation!!)

One of the young visitors at The Little House was intrigued by the rotating gate that stretched across the driveway in front of the house.  I have seen revolving doors before, but this was my first experience with a revolving gate!

To describe the house as "little" is quite accurate!  It only has six rooms, and three of these are bedrooms: one for FDR, one for Eleanor, and one for his secretary.  Other rooms were an entrance hall, living room, and kitchen  The garage and servants quarters were added later, followed by a single story guest cottage in 1933.  Then in 1934, a cottage for Georgia Wilkins was added  (The Wilkins family was the original owner of the property)

The museum that is adjacent to the house has the specially-designed convertible automobile, with hand controls, that FDR enjoyed driving. 

 The photo above shows Roosevelt sitting in a convertible automobile, in front of the Little White House, and shows that the place looked the same then as it does now. 

Roosevelt did not mind being photographed with acquaintances and visitors, if the photo gave no indication of his lower body paralysis.  An example, is this photo with youngsters on the car's running boards:

The Little White House is now a part of the Georgia State Parks ( www.gastateparks.org/LittleWhiteHouse ) This is because most of Roosevelt property was willed to Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, which gained control of the properties in 1948. The photo below shows that the kitchen at the Little White House was what we today would call "Minimalist"!

The photo below shows Roosevelt's chair, just as it was on the day he died, sitting in front of the living room fireplace.  In total, FDR made 16 trips to The Little White House during his presidency, usually spending 2-3 weeks at a time, as it took a day to reach Warm Springs from Washington, D.C., by train.  Locals said he would often host Thanksgiving dinners for the people of Warm Springs.  (This reminded me that a friend of mine who had been part of the communications transition team for President Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia, said President Carter invited the communications team members to share in a Thanksgiving celebration in Plains, Georgia!)

Being a  U.S. President and Governor of New York with "mobility challenges", it is not surprising that Roosevelt would have many different canes and walking sticks given to him over the years.  Since he was diagnosed with polio when he was only 39 years old, the collection was extensive, and they are on display in the museum. 

The museum has this reminder that both John F. Kennedy (in 1960) and Jimmy Carter (in 1976) used the property for their campaigns to become president.  In fact, Jimmy Carter launched his campaign there.

 The photo above with the ship models, illustrates FDR's love of boating, and is a reminder that at one time, he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  Besides putting together ship models, another hobby popular in those days for  a person who was unable to walk or run normally, was postage stamp collecting.  The photo  below is a reminder that FDR was an avid stamp collector:

The Little White House has an elevated back porch that looks out over the woods of Pine Mountain.  During World War II, soldiers from Fort Benning were stationed at the Little White House to patrol the woods surrounding the farm. 

The photo below shows how steep and rocky the property is.

This tiny guard house seems very unimpressive, in terms of the security that is used now to protect U.S. Presidents!  It is good that the sign indicates it was the "Marine Corps Sentry Post", because it is similar in size to an "outhouse", that would have been common in rural Georgia at the time!

  One of the last exhibits at The Little White House is the one that has the unfinished portrait of FDR.  It was this portrait that was being painted, at the time of his death.  On April 12, 1945, FDR was sitting for a portrait at The Little White House, when he suffered a stroke.  He died two hours later of cerebral hemorrhage. (In remembrance of the April 12 day of his death, this blog has a publication date of April 12)   The artist that day was Elizabeth Shoumatoff.  Ms. Shoumatoff later finished a different portrait (based on sketches and memory), that hangs nearby.  I was intrigued by the cane wheelchair underneath the portrait, because I have one just like it!  I bought it when a nursing home I used to work for, was getting rid of their old-style wheel chairs, and replacing them with new vinyl-seat models.  Seeing this one on display makes me have a greater appreciation for my antique model!

A short drive from The Little White House, you can visit the Warm Springs Treatment Pools.  The thermal hot springs of this area are what originally brought FDR to visit, for polio treatments, in 1924.  He was not the first to see curative powers from the waters.   Wounded Native American warriors gathered at the springs before Europeans colonized the New World.  In the late 1700's the springs were discovered by yellow fever victims, and by 1832, Warm Springs had become a popular summer health resort.  The resort flourished in the 1880's-1890's, and was incorporated in 1893.  A factor in the success of that period was that visitors could come to Warm Springs via train, from the larger cities of Atlanta and Savannah  However, after the invention of automobiles, and subsequent growth of automobile travel, tourists began to go elsewhere. 

A few years after FDR's first visit to Warm Springs, he established the Warm Springs Foundation, for the care and treatment of fellow polio victims who could not afford such medical help.  He founded the institution after hearing about a boy who had regained the use of his legs through a treatment known as hydrotherapy, which involves the use of water for soothing pain and treating diseases.  (Notice the title "March of Dimes" on the placard. As a kid, I remember going around town with a small cardboard wallet, made to hold dimes,  I would collect dimes until the wallet slots were filled, then turn in the wallet to a school official, who then mailed all those dimes via the postal service, so that they could be counted at foundation headquarters.  The March of Dimes (Founded in 1928) funded Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Since polio has subsequently become almost eradicated, The March of Dimes changed its primary focus in 2005, to the prevention of preterm births, because preterm births emerged as the leading cause of death for children worldwide.   History shows us now, that  Roosevelt's "March of Dimes" organization became the prototype for dozens of similar foundations.  Since Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes, a redesign of the dime was chosen to honor him after his death.  The Roosevelt dime was issued in 1946, on what would have been his 64th birthday.   .The photo below shows one of the original posters used by The National Foundation For Infantile Paralysis. 

The building beside the former hydrotherapy pools is full of exhibits designed to show the visitor the type of medical treatments that were given to polio patients during that time period.  Tables like the one in this photo were placed in the treatment pools.  While the patient lay on the table in the warm, soothing waters, their therapist stood in the water beside them and exercised the patient's paralyzed legs.  

The historic pools are now empty, but placards located throughout the historic property help the visitor interpret what they are seeing. I would highly recommend the recent HBO movie, Warm Springs, to give you a better image of the status of polio treatment in FDR's time.  The movie shows these same treatment pools, full of water, with the patients and therapists doing their exercises.  You can order the movie on line, or (as I did) check it out for free from your local library. 

The pools were massive, almost the size of a football field, and this photo shows a connecting walk through area of the pools, as well as an overhead bridge. When FDR first started going to the Warm Springs pools, he was not allowed to enter the water until after the regular, "healthy" resort guests were gone for the day.  Likewise, he was not allowed to eat with the regular, "healthy" resort guests, due to the stigma polio had of being highly contagious.  My husband told the story about when he was a youngster, he contracted a very mild case of polio that paralyzed his esophagus for a short time.  Because of this "contagious" fear, his younger brother was required to take a painful medical injection that would  supposedly reduce the risk of the younger brother contracting polio.  My husband said his younger brother had trouble understanding the situation and asked, "Since the BIG brother was the sick one, why is it the LITTLE brother has to take this awful shot??!!!)

Although the historic pools no longer have water in them, there is a small area down inside the pools, where one can actually stick their hands into the thermal waters,

 Young folks may not recognize the contraption shown below, but because my mother had one of these attached to her washing machine when I was growing up, I knew it was a "wringer", used to PRESS the water out of clothing, towels, linens , etc, so that they would dry quicker.  The hydrotherapy pools would have resulted in dozens of wet towels, and without the benefit of our modern, heavy-duty commercial dryers, alternative solutions were needed.  Drying time for towels is greatly reduced if as much moisture as possible is PRESSED out of them before they are hung up to dry.  This phenomena of using pressure to get a desired result,  is why I am using the image of a wringer as the visual aid for my First Place 4 Health ( www.FirstPlace4Health.com ) memory verse, that has the word "press" in it.  "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I PRESS on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."  Philippians 3:12

The museum exhibits include examples of braces that many polio victims wore, to facilitate movement of their paralyzed legs.  FDR wore such braces, although they are seldom seen when you look at photographs of him.  He did not like being thought of as "a cripple", and thus usually forbade the news reporters from taking photographs that showed his braces.  In the Warm Springs movie, FDR makes the comment that he would need to have a blacksmith as part of the rehab team, so they could staff a "Brace Shop" for the patients.  The physical therapist would monitor a young patient's growth, and have new braces made for them, as they grew taller.  In the Warm Springs movie, Kathy Bates plays the physical therapist who is a key character in advancing the hydrotherapy treatment of polio, and her role reminded me of the father of one of my college friends.  He was a graduate of Baylor University and a Licensed Physical Therapist.  He said he went into that field because of the tremendous help he received from physical therapists who helped him overcome polio. 

The photo below shows what was called an "iron lung".  When a patient's paralysis got so bad that their chest muscles and lungs could no longer contract and expand, the machine forced air in and out of their lungs.  I think the phrase "Iron Lung" is etched vividly in my mind because as a youngster, I was told one of my classmates who had polio had to go away and be put into an Iron Lung.  Shortly thereafter, we were told that the classmate had died.  In those days, the disease of polio made it a sad and scary time, for both parents and children.   Today, in health care, a much smaller version of a breathing machine is used, and it is called a ventilator. 

One of the reasons the health care profession has made so much progress in the treatment of polio and other similar maladies, is through the research and development that was implemented by FDR.  This exhibit hales it as Roosevelt's greatest legacy:

The institute

 provides vocational rehabilitation , long term acute care, and inpatient rehabilitation for amputees and people recovering from spinal cord injuries. 

I am very thankful for the perseverance FDR displayed as he worked to overcome the difficulties associated with the terrible disease of polio---as he PRESSED ON, to be our country's only four-term president .   One can still donate to the charitable foundation he started, by going to www.MarchOfDimes.org   .  Likewise, if you would like to visit this and a multitude of other fascinating sights in Georgia, check out the website, www.ExploreGeorgia.org

A trip to this state will give you "MILES OF SMILES"!!