Dec. 16 – The Newcastle home of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins – the central architect behind the New Deal – will become Maine’s second national monument following a statement from President Biden on Monday.
Perkins was the first woman to serve in the Cabinet of a U.S. president, as Secretary of Labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945. She was the longest-serving person in that position and led New Deal reforms such as Social Security, the 40 hour work week, child labor laws and the minimum wage.
The Frances Perkins National Monument will be managed by the National Park Service, in partnership with the nonprofit Frances Perkins Center. It is the second site in Maine to receive such a designation, joining Katahdin Woods and Waters, which was declared a national monument in 2016.
Perkins, who grew up primarily in Massachusetts, spent her childhood summers on the property and returned throughout her life. The 57-acre farm and ranch were passed down to the Perkins family for more than 270 years. Frances Perkins owned the house from 1927 until her death in 1965.
Biden, along with Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other Cabinet members, planned to attend the proclamation signing at the Frances Perkins Building in Washington DC on Monday.
“Honoring Frances Perkins with a national monument does more than recognize her work on Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage and overtime; it is a challenge for us,” Su said. “We must all remember that the wins we enjoy today were not gifts, they were hard-won victories because Frances Perkins dared to believe that workers needed to thrive, not just survive.”
The Frances Perkins Center and several Maine lawmakers officially asked Biden in August to designate Perkins’ childhood home as a national monument. The Newcastle homestead has been run by the Frances Perkins Center since 2020, when the organization purchased the property from the Perkins family. In 2014 it was declared a National Historic Landmark.
The designation aligns with the mission of a March executive order directing the Department of the Interior to identify potential National Park Service sites that would honor women.
“Frances Perkins was an incredible pioneer. I am grateful to President Biden for taking this step to ensure that current and future generations will learn about her body of work,” Haaland said in a press release.
“Frances Perkins accepted the position as the first female cabinet member only after President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to support her goals to improve working conditions for all people. She worked tirelessly to achieve this, and she set a standard of excellence that stands as a beacon for all of us who serve. Today we’re taking a step to ensure that children growing up across America know the name Frances Perkins and understand the impact she had on our country.
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