"It is fun to be in the same decade with you." ~FDR in a letter to Winston Churchill

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States and elected president for four terms before he died of a stroke two years into his fourth term. He assumed the presidency during the Great Depression and is credited with keeping the country's economic crisis from becoming a political crisis. He served as President during WWII and died in office just before the war ended. (Info courtesy of Wikipedia and White House Archives)

Today, I was in his presence, or at least in the presence of a memorial dedicated to him. To see more about the meaning behind it see this link. There are four "rooms" in the memorial, each paying tribute to one of FDR's terms.

In the first room FDR is sculpted in a wheelchair as he was paralyzed by polio when he was younger. This was a controversial addition to the memorial, but ultimately it was determined that it was a fitting tribute.

The second room consists of three scenes. The first is of the "Rural Couple."

The second is of the "Breadline." These two sculptures represent the trying times America was having during the Great Depression.

The third scene is of a man listening to the radio, typifying the country listening to FDR's fireside chats and is fittingly called, "The Fireside Chat."

In this room there was also five pillars and five murals portraying the New Deal. No pictures, sorry, but you can see them on that link I mentioned earlier.


The third room portrays FDR's third term. This is a time that the country is deep in war, and this sculpture portrays his still human-ness with his dog sitting ever faithfully at his side.

FDR died before he finished his fourth term. In the room commemorating his last two years as President there is a sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a vital player in politics and society during her time as First Lady. She travel, spoke, wrote newpaper columns and held weekly press conferences. This is the first time that a first lady has been honored in a presidental memorial.

There are waterfalls throughout the memorial. This memorial is very unlike most of the Presidental Memorials found in DC, but was a nice change pace. Did you know this?... There is an original FDR memorial...yes, I was surprised too. Read this to find out why.