What Is Frances Perkins National Monument?
This is the ancestral homestead of Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member and longest-serving Secretary of Labor!
What Makes It Historical?
Born in 1880 as Fannie Coralie Perkins, this future mover and shaker had quite the education! A physics major from Mount Holyoke College, she earned her master’s degree from Columbia University, all the while promoting suffrage movements and volunteering at Hull House in Chicago, where she got to witness firsthand the conditions of poor folks in major US cities! She took this experience into her roles as General Secretary of the Philadelphia Research & Protective Association (1907) and Executive Secretary of the New York Consumers League (1910), but it was her witnessing of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, in which the workers burned to death because their boss locked them in, that really galvanized Ms. Perkins!
Married but keeping her surname, preferring the gender-neutral Frances to Fannie, Ms. Perkins had a knack for turning tragedy into opportunity, leading investigations into the fire she witnessed then later forming the Maternity Center Association to combat infant mortality after her own miscarriage. In 1918, she was appointed to the New York State Industrial Commission, the first woman to be appointed to an executive position in New York, and by 1926, she was leading the Commission! It was during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tenure as New York governor that Ms. Perkins’ reputation earned her landmark position in the federal government!
In 1933, newly elected President Roosevelt appointed Ms. Perkins his Secretary of Labor, giving her the opportunity to really take on the labor issues she’d witnessed for decades. As part of the New Deal, she created the Bureau of Labor Standards (1934), spearheaded the Social Security Act and National Labor Relations Act (1935), and organized job programs at the height of the Great Depression, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA)! Critically in 1938, she championed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set maximum hours, minimum wages, and an end to child labor! The longest serving Secretary of Labor (12 years), she stayed true to her roots, escaping periodically to her family’s ancestral homestead in Newcastle, Maine, which is preserved today in her memory!
How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?
- Volunteer at Frances Perkins National Monument!
- Donate to the Frances Perkins Center!
- Be a responsible visitor! Remember the old adages: Pack out what you pack in! Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints!
How Do I Get There?
478 River Rd
Newcastle, ME 04553
(Take Me There!)
When Should I Visit the Park?
The trails and ruins are open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset, but the home and barn are only open from mid-June until mid-October, Tuesday through Friday, from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM!
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