1924: A Year of New Beginnings

Franklin D. Roosevelt in his wheelchair aboard the Nourmahal, April 1935. Credit Robert Cross-Sailor in the White House. NPx 06-01.

By Kevin Thomas, Archives Technician

1924 does not resonate the way 1933, or 1941 does when thinking of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was, however, a year filled with encounters that would profoundly change both.

1924 was the year in which Franklin Roosevelt returned to the public stage in politics after polio. It was the year he first visited Warm Springs. 1924 was also the year in which Eleanor Roosevelt began to imagine life at a place we know as Val-Kill.

These three events were pivotal moments for both Roosevelts. They set in motion story lines both personal and universal. Life would never be the same for either of them afterward.


FDR delivers the nominating speech for Alfred E. Smith at the Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY. June 26, 1924. This speech is often considered FDR’s first major gesture of re-entry into national politics after recovering from the onset of polio. NPx 71-124.

Patience.

By 1924, that word must have been an aggravation for Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was learning to walk again, or at least living with that goal in mind. Frustration at being out of the public’s attention, and out of public view, was growing.

A century ago, the future for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt depended on Franklin’s recovery from polio, which had afflicted him in the summer of 1921. If he had hopes of returning to elected office, and subsequently attaining the U.S. Presidency, he needed to find a way to reenter the public conversation, and in ways relevant to politics. There needed to be a transition away from discussing his recovery from polio.

For much of the period 1922-1924, Franklin, with the help of Eleanor and his Secretary Louis Howe, kept up a steady flow of public statements, correspondence with political allies and friends, and published materials to keep himself in the minds of influential people and voters. But he needed to do more. He needed to appear in public – on a stage that attracted national attention.

Photograph shows crowd of attendees at the 1924 Democratic National Convention in New York City which was held June 24 through July 9. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2022) https://lccn.loc.gov/2014717399

That opportunity came at the Democratic National Convention, which began on June 24, 1924, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. He was asked to place New York Governor Al Smith’s name in nomination for the Presidency and deliver a speech to do so. Such a speech would be witnessed by thousands in attendance and relayed across the nation by the press. It was a speech FDR would rehearse well in advance. He prepared not only for what he was to say, but more importantly, his appearance – approaching the podium in a fashion that would demonstrate his recovery from polio and his strength and independence. There could be no possibility of looking weak, or dependent – to do so would spell doom for his political future.  

Page 9 of FDR’s convention speech. For the full text of FDR’s convention speech, please visit: https://fdrlibrary.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/19241.pdf

On the third day of the convention, June 26, with poise and steel, he reached the podium, after moving a distance of 15 feet – using only his crutches and balancing his weight over two atrophied legs he could not move. Roosevelt’s speech became known as the “Happy Warrior” speech, and it would be remembered – along with his courageous display of physical exertion – as the return of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the political arena.

Lieutenant Governor George Lunn, FDR, John W. Davis, and Al Smith at Roosevelt’s family home in Hyde Park, New York. FDR is supporting himself on crutches. August 7, 1924. NPx 48-49:323

Franklin D. Roosevelt by the swimming pool in Warm Springs, Georgia, 1924. NPx 47-96:2331

He came with hope. He left with belief.

An invitation to visit Bullochville, Georgia, and dip in the purported healing waters of Warm Springs, first came in the summer of 1924 from George Foster Peabody.

On October 3, 1924, FDR arrived for his first visit. He would return for the rest of his life.

Immersion in the pools of Warm Springs allowed FDR to experience some independence, and some “sensation in his toes,” if only very little, which he could not reproduce on land. His first visit had the greatest of impacts. He left there with an enhanced confidence in his recovery.

For the next 20 years, his bond with the property would grow stronger. FDR would make Warm Springs, and the cottage he built there, a second home. He would also help to create a polio rehabilitation center there and developed a close interest in the community of polio patients who would visit. Many were children, in whom he strove to instill the same dose of confidence and faith that his first experiences at Warm Springs gave him.

Warm Springs was also a place that Franklin could truly claim as his own – a place away from his mother Sara, and Eleanor. Warm Springs was also where he could be himself with his own body – using wheelchairs, or in physical therapy within the pools, out of the public eye.

It was at Warm Springs, that the President would die, on April 12, 1945.

Franklin D. Roosevelt exercising in the walking court at Warm Springs, GA, 1928. NPx 82-71(40)

Eleanor Roosevelt with Fala at Val-Kill in Hyde Park, NY. 1947 NPx 63-330.

A picnic along the Fall-Kill creek. A peaceful moment.

FDR had been rejuvenated by his recent first visit to Warm Springs. With him that day were Eleanor, and friends Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman, and the two youngest Roosevelt children, Franklin, Jr. and John.

According to Dickerman, it was Eleanor who remarked how this would be their last picnic for the year, as Franklin’s mother was going to close the estate’s home for the season, and with it, any opportunity for the women to spend another weekend together. Springwood, as the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, NY was known, was owned by Sara, and she would soon relocate to New York City for the winter months. The picnic spot along the creek had become a favorite of the women. Franklin, Dickerman recalled, then suggested the friends build a place for themselves so that they could return whenever they wished. In Dickerman’s account, FDR appears to imply the vicinity of the picnic spot. The land was owned by Franklin, part of a purchase he made in 1911.

Account of 1924 picnic by Marion Dickerman

The following year, a lifetime lease from FDR was signed by Eleanor, Marion, and Nancy. Construction of a small cottage began as well and was completed in 1926. In the years to follow a second building was constructed to accommodate the new Val-Kill Industries, and eventually this second building would be converted into a residence for Eleanor. Val-Kill, as the property was known, would become Eleanor’s “home” – and her’s permanently after Franklin’s death in 1945.

Eleanor Roosevelt with (from left to right) Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Mary Margaret McBride, Professor Winifred Asprey from Vassar College, and Maureen Corr in the dining room at Val-Kill in Hyde Park, New York, June 16, 1962. NPx 65-590(228)

Val-Kill was what she had always wanted – a place to feel comfort, peace, and independence – a place that was Her’s, and not someone else’s. Franklin would not be found there, except as a visitor, and Val-Kill provided separation from her mother-in-law Sara. She was surrounded by her own things there and could invite her own friends to visit and to stay, or in later years, her grandchildren. By the time of her own death in 1962, Val-Kill had become an extension of her true self, and as her political influence grew, world leaders and young Americans came to Val-Kill too, because that was where they would find the “First Lady of the World.”

Eleanor Roosevelt, and (from left to right) Andrei Gromyko, Nina Khrushcheva, and Nikita Khrushchev at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s grave in Hyde Park, New York, September 18, 1959. NPx 65-624.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elliot, and Elizabeth Donner (Mrs. Elliot Roosevelt) on the porch of the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, May 7, 1932. NPx 48-22:3724(247).

1924 was a year of new beginnings for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was the year that both moved into new phases, both political and personal. It was the year where each connected to a place of their own – places where they could draw inspiration from, and where they could relax, rest, and restore both body and mind. Along the way, both would develop and grow further as individuals and the results would bring them closer to their goals and to their “rendezvous with destiny.”