Roosevelt Island To Open New FDR Memorial Honoring His Disability

ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NY — Roosevelt Island is set to open a new attraction honoring its namesake: an immersive monument that commemorates President Franklin D. Roosevelt's work on behalf of people with disabilities.

After years of planning, the FDR Hope Memorial will be unveiled Saturday in its home at Southpoint Park. It will join another sculpture honoring the late president at nearby Four Freedoms Park.

The Hope Memorial, though, will be unique for its focus on disabilities. It depicts Roosevelt seated in his wheelchair and reaching out to a young girl who, like him, is disabled by polio.

The sculptures are set in an engraved granite plaza shaped like the Oval Office, surrounded by accessible benches and inscribed pavers that document progress in the nation's treatment of disabled people, according to organizers.

It was proposed in 2009 by the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association, whose members noted that the island's other portrayal of FDR does not make his disabilities apparent.

Roosevelt contracted an illness believed to be polio in 1921, when he was 39 years old, which paralyzed him from the waist down. He later founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which funded Jonas Salk's eventual vaccine.

Its unveiling this month coincides with the 31st anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"We're proud to be able to add this experiential work to our robust offering of progressive art and it’s an honor to unveil such a significant and symbolic statue here on Roosevelt Island," said Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. President and CEO Shelton J. Haynes in a statement.

"We are reminded every day, by our island’s name, that we have a legacy to uphold by continuing to represent how inclusion and diversity can prosper in New York."

Those on hand for the ribbon-cutting will include the memorial's artist, Meredith Bergmann; U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; and Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright, among others.