About Us
History of the Memorial
Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as United States President from 1933 to 1945. He led the United States out of the despair of the Great Depression and through the international crises of World War II. Eleanor Roosevelt was a groundbreaking First Lady who made major contributions to civil rights and social justice. The Memorial captures the challenges and triumphs of their time.
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., was the result of more than five decades of planning, debate, redesign, and advocacy. Shortly after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, there were calls to honor him with a national memorial. In 1955, Congress established the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission to oversee its creation, and in 1959 a site was designated along the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park, between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. The site was part of the famed McMillan “kite” plan.
Early efforts to design the memorial proved challenging. The selected design from the 1960 national design competition received public criticism and was abandoned. A second competition in 1966 selected a modernist proposal by Marcel Breuer which was ultimately rejected by the Commission of Fine Arts. The project stalled for nearly a decade.
In 1974 landscape architect Lawrence Halprin proposed a new concept. Rather than a single monumental structure, Halprin envisioned an immersive landscape of four sequential outdoor “rooms,” each representing one of Roosevelt’s four presidential terms from 1933 to 1945. His design emphasized movement through space, water as metaphor, and Roosevelt’s own words carved into red South Dakota granite. Sculptural groupings depicting the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II were integrated into the landscape, creating a narrative experience rather than a traditional statue-centered monument.
Although Halprin’s design was approved in the late 1970s, funding delays postponed construction for years. It was not until the late 1980s that Congress appropriated sufficient funds to move the project forward. Construction began in the early 1990s, involving extensive stonework, water features, and planting design to realize Halprin’s carefully choreographed sequence of spaces. The memorial was formally dedicated on May 2, 1997, by President Bill Clinton, marking the culmination of decades of effort.
The Completion of the Memorial — FDR Wheelchair Statue and Prologue Room Addition
When the Memorial was first dedicated in 1997, it did not include a depiction of FDR’s disability. The National Organization on Disability led the campaign which was eventually joined by over 50 disability organizations.
A Harris Poll revealed 73% public support for a disability portrayal. Sixteen FDR grandchildren wrote in support of the depiction. Legislation was passed in the U.S. Senate the night before the 1997 dedication calling for the addition of FDR’s disability to the Memorial. The wheelchair statue along with a bas relief sculpture with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt was added and dedicated in the new Prologue Room by President Bill Clinton on January 10, 2001.
Today, the FDR Memorial is widely regarded as one of the most innovative presidential memorials in Washington — distinguished by its landscape architecture, narrative structure, and evolving commitment to representing the full story of Roosevelt’s life and leadership.