[5]: 257  He went to a resort in the town whose attraction was a permanent 88-degree natural spring, but whose main house, the Meriwether Inn, was described as "ramshackle".

Roosevelt traveled to the area frequently, including 16 times while he was President of the United States, and he died in the district on April 12, 1945, at his Little White House, which he had built in 1932.

[6] He founded the Institute 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 pains and treating diseases.

[11] The main building of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute is Georgia Hall, built in 1933 to replace the old Meriwether Inn, which was torn down as it was too dilapidated to successfully renovate to then-modern conditions.

[2][3] In 2005, the Warm Springs Institute was featured in the television movie Warm Springs, which details FDR's struggle with his paralytic illness, his discovery of the Georgia spa resort, his work to turn it into a center for the aid of polio victims, and the subsequent resumption of his political career.