A Tour of the FDR Memorial,
Designed by Lawrence Halprin


The First Term Room:
1933-1937

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images to see in full-size.

FDR's presidential years start here. The primary theme of this room is the immediate impact that his tremendous energy and optimism had on the country, from the day he took his first oath of office.

The stone in this first-term room has a simple split-face finish and is similar in feel to the New England fieldstone used at FDR's homes in Hyde Park, New York. Memorable quotations from FDR's speeches and "Fireside Chats" have been carved in large letters directly on the granite, while longer quotations are sandblasted in smaller letters on thermal-finished granite panels.

The Second Term Room:
1937-1941 		The second room in the Memorial presents visitors with powerful and jarring images, confronting them with the realities of a country sunk in unemployment, despair, and poverty with no social or financial safety nets to depend upon for help. Neither government nor the private sector had mechanisms to respond to the overwhelming need. There was no social security, unemployment insurance, medical care, worker's compensations, or help for the aged.

The dual nature of the second-term room depicts both the enormous problems posted by the Great Depression and the New Deal programs for resolving these problems. As visitors enter this space, sculptures and quotations communicate the deep frustrations and despair affecting both rural and urban America. On the far side of the dividing wall, however, a thirty-foot-long bronze mural depicting fifty-four of the social programs reveals the New Deal response. These programs were developed to give employment, to reverse the downward momentum of the Depression, and to enable people to engage in work projects which would give them a sense of pride and accomplishment.

The Third Term Room:
1941-1945 		Visitors are confronted by a great destructive presence as they move out of a passageway and into the third-term room. The atmosphere of armed conflict and the effects of war in this room are overpowering and unsettling. Giant granite blocks are strewn across the paved pathway. Looking about, visitors will realize that the destruction emanates from the walls and the fountain. The rubble is meant to represent the impact that a bomb would have on the walls and fountain if it exploded in the room. Great fragments of the wall lie askew on the pavement. Pipes are broken and water spurts from amidst fragments. The feeling is reminiscent of the war years in Europe. It recalls scenes of horrible bombing and destruction in London, Dresden, Warsaw, and other cities.
The Fourth Term Room:
1945 		There is no garden passageway between the third-and fourth-term rooms of the Memorial. The war, the peace, and the effects of FDR's untimely death were all unfolding in a whirlwind. Newsreels, radio broadcasts, and banner headlines delivered history-making news on a daily basis. The two theaters of war competed for attention. Life was being lived at the very fast pace.

Therefore, as visitors move from the third-to the forth-term room, they find themselves on a viewing platform rather than in a tranquil passageway. The overlook provides a way of looking forward at what lies ahead as well as back to the recent past. The fourth room is dedicated to peace and an optimistic view of the future. It is consecrated to the achievement of FDR's enlightened ideals.