Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Frances Perkins National Monument?

The country’s new addition to the National Park System honors Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman cabinet secretary and longest serving Secretary of Labor, and her lifelong advocacy and accomplishments in support of labor and workers’ rights.

Where is the Frances Perkins National Monument?

Located in Newcastle, Maine, the centerpiece of the new national monument is the Perkins Homestead. Designated a national historic landmark in 2014, the ancestral home of the Perkins family is on a 57-acre property along the Damariscotta River that included agricultural fields and a brick manufacturing center which supported the family for generations. Visitors experience the same landscape, garden paths, and wooded walking trails that were a lifelong source of inspiration and rejuvenation for Perkins.

The Federal lands reserved as a national monument consist of 2.3 acres that contain the Perkins family home built in 1837 (known as the Brick House), barn, stone walls, and their immediate surroundings. The National Monument boundary mirrors the national historic landmark designation issued in 2014, which encompasses all 57 acres of the farm. The National Park Service will work in partnership with the Frances Perkins Center to provide visitor information and services, both for the park and across the broader Perkins Homestead landscape, which the Frances Perkins Center acquired in 2020.

Who was Frances Perkins?

Born in 1880, Frances Perkins devoted her life to improving the lives of others. The trailblazer became the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet after President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her to be Secretary of Labor in 1933. She was a driving force behind the New Deal and was the architect of important labor and social welfare statutes, policies, and programs that established Social Security, a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, prohibitions on child labor, and overtime pay, as well as public works programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, which bolstered the economy and helped working people across the country.

Before women had the right to vote in 1920, Perkins had already graduated from Mt. Holyoke College, taught school, fought to protect women and girls from labor and sexual exploitation in Chicago and Philadelphia, studied at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, earned a master’s degree from Columbia University, married, had a child, rallied for women’s suffrage, did field work on child malnutrition in NYC, and—after personally witnessing the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire—worked for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York and the New York State Factory Investigating Commission.

Prior to being Secretary of Labor, Perkins worked in various roles for the State of New York as an advocate for immigrants, children and workers, including under Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. When asked to serve as Secretary of Labor, Perkins famously told the new President that she would not join his administration unless he agreed to her ambitious list of goals that became a centerpiece of the New Deal.

What is at the site?

Ensconced in natural beauty with scenic walking trails and views of the river, the 57-acre Perkins’ Homestead remains much as it was during Secretary Perkins' lifetime, including the buildings, structures, gardens, paths, woods, and fields along the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, Maine. In 2014, the Secretary of the Interior designated the area as the Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark. On December 16, 2024, President Joe Biden designated 2.3-acres as a national monument, which includes the brick house, an attached barn, a gravel driveway, a garden, and portions of a stone wall. The National Monument boundary, however, encompasses all of the national historic landmark. The Frances Perkins Center will continue to care for the rest of the property and work in partnership with the National Park Service to provide visitor services.

When will the park open to the public?

The Frances Perkins Center is partnering with the National Park Service to provide visitor services at the site. The 57-acres of grounds and trails are open to the public year-round for self-guided tours during daylight hours.

Is the house open to the public?

The Homestead buildings have closed for the season and are expected to reopen in summer of 2025.

What facilities/services and features are available at the site?

The grounds and trails are open to the public during daylight hours year-round.

How can I find out more information about the park?

The public can visit this website and the Frances Perkins Center website at francesperkinscenter.org.

How will the National Park Service manage and develop the park?

Management of Frances Perkins National Monument will be informed by comprehensive planning. The inaugural planning document developed for most new national parks is a foundation document. Foundation documents establish a shared understanding of what is most important about a park by defining its purpose, significance, primary interpretive themes, fundamental resources and values, in addition to evaluating key issues to identify and prioritize future planning and data needs. In doing so, the foundation document establishes underlying guidance to help inform management and planning and serves as a basis for consistency in future decision-making.

Building on the foundation document, future planning processes will provide more detailed guidance on key aspects of long-term management of the park.

Planning processes for the site will engage local communities, key stakeholders, and the general public.

How have stakeholders, including the Frances Perkins Center, been involved in the process of designating the site as a national park?

The community, Tribal and local leaders, Governor, and current and former members of the congressional delegation supported the effort to designate the homestead as a national monument to be managed by the National Park Service in partnership with the Francis Perkins Center.

Local stakeholders, including the Frances Perkins Center, were instrumental in obtaining listings for the site on the National Register of Historic Places and as a national historical landmark. They also advocated for the site to become part of the National Park System.

Recently, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz visited the Frances Perkins Homestead. While there, they met with the community to learn about their vision for the care and management of the site.