Little White House
— the porch where a long war finally caught up.
Not only on a wall.
“Franklin Roosevelt's six-room pine cottage on Pine Mountain, kept almost exactly as he left it the afternoon he collapsed at his desk on April 12, 1945. The unfinished portrait still rests on its easel in the next room. He had come here for forty years for the warm spring water and the quiet, and you can see why on a slow afternoon when only the cicadas are working. from the studio
Little White House, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Little White House sits on the south slope of Pine Mountain in Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia, about 70 miles southwest of Atlanta. Franklin Roosevelt built the cottage in 1932, the year before his first inauguration, after a decade of returning to bathe in the 88-degree mineral spring water for polio rehabilitation. He died here on April 12, 1945, while sitting for a portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff. The site has been preserved by the State of Georgia since 1948 and is now operated as a Georgia State Historic Site, with the rooms left largely as they were that afternoon.
The cottage is a modest single-story structure of Georgia pine, designed by Henry Toombs for a quiet president who wanted no fanfare. Six rooms. A small servants' wing. A flagstone terrace looking out over the wooded ravine. Inside, the Shoumatoff portrait sits unfinished on its easel, the morning's mail still in the basket, the wheelchair beside the desk. Out front, the Walk of Flags and Stones honors each state and territory. The buildings have changed almost nothing since 1945, which is the point.
The historic site is open Thursday through Monday, generally 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Adult admission runs around $15 and includes the cottage, the museum, the Walk of Flags and Stones, and the springs pools below the hill. Allow two hours. The museum holds the 1938 Ford convertible Roosevelt drove with hand controls, plus the Unfinished Portrait. April 12 each year draws a small commemorative crowd; off-season weekdays are nearly empty and best for the quiet the place was built for.