Walking the grounds of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, you see traces of history everywhere.

The pool where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt swam is still there. In the historic quadrangle you can see steps where polio patients practiced walking on crutches. Roosevelt hosted huge Thanksgiving dinners for patients, staff and town residents in the dining hall, which still boasts its original chandeliers.

One of FDR's famous fireside radio chats was broadcast from here in 1939. The auditorium in the basement — where patients watched movies — still has its wheelchair ramps. It was the first handicapped-accessible theater in the country.

The astonishing thing about this place is that it's not a museum, but a multipurpose rehabilitation center with a mission to "empower individuals with disabilities to achieve personal independence." Run by the Georgia Department of Labor for the last five years and also supported with private development funds, it is one of nine state-managed rehabilitation centers in the country.

I bet it's one of a kind, and as CEO Gregory Schmieg said, "it's a jewel for the state of Georgia." Originally built as a treatment center for polio patients, the institute now welcomes patients who have been diagnosed with brain or spinal-cord injuries, strokes, diabetes, skin wounds, orthopedic problems and other conditions. The 430-member staff provides acute care, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services, and vocational training to clients who have disabilities.

Vocational clients live in dorms, learn job skills, gain confidence and employment. Some learn to drive, finish high school or take courses at West Georgia Technical College in LaGrange.

In all, the institute serves about 5,000 people, and about 1,000 campers who have disabilities attend Camp Dream each year. A new state-of-the art outpatient rehabilitation facility is expanding services.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond recently requested $9 million from the state budget to replace aging dormitories, which would allow the vocational program to house 200 clients.

As the ninth CEO of the institute, Schmieg sees his job as preserving its history while moving the facility into the future, and he's working on two new initiatives.

State and institute leaders recently hosted a delegation led by U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson to propose the facility as a rehabilitation site for disabled soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. There's red tape to be worked out, but the meeting was positive, Schmieg said.

"It makes sense," he said. "Many of these solders are returning with brain and other injuries that we are equipped to handle."

The campus could provide soldiers with both medical and vocational rehabilitation, and it would be a treatment center that is closer to home for Southern troops.

"President Roosevelt housed soldiers here in 1944, and we have the land to build extra housing if we need it. Both the commissioner and I would love to see us bring soldiers here as soon as possible," Schmieg said.

He also hopes to establish a center for rehabilitation technology at Warm Springs that would lead the way in research and innovation.

"Prosthetics and new rehabilitation technology can continue to level the playing field for people with disabilities," he said.

That fits well with Roosevelt's original vision for Warm Springs.

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CORRECTION

A story in the August issue misstated when Georgia State University's Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing began offering doctoral degrees in nursing. The school's Ph.D. program in nursing started in 1986.