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History of Warm Springs, Georgia

They flocked to the waters for health.......The warm mineral springs drew settlers to the area, and in 1832 when David Rose built the first "resort area" in Warm Springs, its popularity grew.  Later in 1893, Charles Davis built the very Victorian 300-room Meriwether Inn.  There was a dance pavilion, bowling alley, tennis court and trap shooting.  From the nearly 90 degree springs flowing from the hillside of Pine Mountain, resort pools were constructed.  It became "the place" for a summer retreat.  But at the turn of the century, the resort and the town fell into a decline.

It was the late former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who first gave national recognition to Warm Springs when, in 1924, he visited the town's naturally heated mineral springs as treatment for his polio related paralysis. Georgia State Parks recently refurbished the pools and, although they are now mostly empty, a touch pool still exists where visitors are welcome to feel the actual warm spring water and listen to information about its' history. The warm springs maintains a constant 88 degree temperature year round and flows at approximately 914 gallons per minute.  Unfortunately the springs are not available for public use as a spa resort, but they are used by the Roosevelt Institute for therapeutic purposes. 

The Little White House

Roosevelt was so enchanted with Warm Springs that he built the only home he ever owned here - a modest, six room cottage called the Little White House which served as a relaxing, comfortable haven for him during his regular visits to Warm Springs. It was here he is believed to have developed his New Deal policies that would affect the entire nation, here where he relaxed and socialized and here where he died on April 12, 1945 while posing for the "Unfinished Portrait".