Georgia’s largest and most famous warm spring delivers 914 gallons of 88°F water per minute to a catch basin beneath the buildings at the base of the hill. The springs have been used for recreation and healing for centuries. Franklin D. Roosevelt came here in 1924 hoping to recover from the effects of polio, came to believe in the springs’ therapeutic benefits, and bought a declining Victorian resort that had grown around them. For the next 21 years, he invested much time and money in making Warm Springs a major polio treatment center. After the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation was founded, the pools area was transformed into a hydrotherapeutic treatment center designed by architect Henry Toombs, and a public pool was built between the treatment pools and Alternate US 27. In 1942 these treatment pools were supplanted by an indoor pool built on the main Foundation Campus because moving patients to them was difficult. The treatment pools were then used occasionally for treatment and recreation before finally closing in the 1960’s. The Department of Natural Resources stabilized and renovated the springs and pools complex for visitation during 1994 - 95 for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of F. D. R.’s death.