ALS signed “FDR,” one page both sides, 8.5 x 11, Roosevelt & O’Connor letterhead, stamp dated July 1, 1926. Letter to his friend and partner Basil O’Connor. In full: “Yes you’re right about the $2500. You remember when we were negotiating our contract early in April I insisted I was buying al the assets of the G.W.S. Corporation & that the Corporation had depreciated $2500 in escrow in the bank at W.S.D. go towards paying for the lake property owned by Mr. Williams, who was seeking…this title. Chas. Peabody, thought the money in the bank was his Uncle’s, but G.F.P. said it was the Corporations & the bank & Mr. Williams also insist it was the Corporation’s money & that title was to be given to the Corporation. I…finally signed the contract with the Peabodys on the definite understanding that Mr. Geo. Foster Peabody would pass on this $2500. It certainly belongs to me & I want…to take title on the Williams land.” Intersecting mailing folds, punch holes to one vertical edge, and pencil notations to top of front page, otherwise fine condition.
In 1924, FDR received a letter from Peabody, informing him about a young polio sufferer who seemed to have recovered his ability to walk by swimming in the buoyant waters of the Georgia. In April 1926, Roosevelt paid more than $200,000 for the Merriweather Inn, which included cottages, pools, and 1,200 acres of undeveloped land, and later acquired an additional 1,750 acres. After acquiring the necessary land, the future president established the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, later renamed the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, with O’Connor and Wall Street banker George Foster Peabody among his financial backers. While posing for a portrait on April 12, 1945, FDR suffered a stroke and died a short while later while staying at Warm Springs.
This remarkable letter represents the building blocks of Roosevelt’s center for the hydrotherapeutic treatment of polio victims and the not-for-profit foundation devoted to this work. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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