Warm Springs was presidential retreat: An AJC Photo Vault

By Arlinda Smith Broady, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Throughout history U.S. presidents have had favorite retreats: Jefferson’s Monticello, George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas; Kennedy’s family compound on Cape Cod. For Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it was The Little White House in Warm Springs, Ga. Roosevelt, who had run unsuccessfully for vice president in 1920, was vacationing with his family in Canada in 1921 when he was stricken with polio. Left paralyzed from the waist down, he began traveling to Warm Springs in 1924 after he heard about a polio patient who had benefited from swimming in the hot springs. This photo shows FDR during his first visit to Warm Springs in 1924.

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