A nonprofit preserving the legacy of a crusader for workers’ rights and the nation’s first female Cabinet secretary wants her Maine family homestead declared a national monument.
That goal may be closer than they realize.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that President Joe Biden is planning to sign an executive order declaring the Frances Perkins Homestead a national monument, based on interviews with three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
It’s not yet clear when that will happen, the Post reported.
That news coincided with the Thursday launch of the Frances Perkins Center’s campaign to win national monument status for the property, which includes a brick house and barns on 57 acres along the Damariscotta River in Newcastle. The nonprofit is collecting signatures for a petition urging Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to declare the homestead a national monument.
The property was designated a National Historic Landmark on Aug. 25, 2014.
“We have an opportunity to create a new national monument honoring one of the most influential women in US history, right here in Maine,” said Giovanna Gray Lockhart, executive director of the Frances Perkins Center. “With a national monument designation, not only will she receive the recognition she deserves, more people will be able to learn about her work and future generations will be inspired by her incredible legacy.”
Perkins was the country’s first female Cabinet secretary. She served as labor secretary under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Perkins played a critical role in reshaping labor law in the United States, particularly banning child labor, creating Social Security, unemployment insurance and a minimum wage, and instituting a 40-hour workweek.
Before ascending to the national stage, Perkins was an advocate for workers’ rights and served on the commission that investigated the deadly 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 workers, many of whom were young women and some of whom jumped several floors to their deaths to escape the flames.
The building had only one fire escape, which collapsed during efforts to rescue the workers, and managers had locked the doors inside to prevent theft but also prevented workers from escaping.
The campaign to designate her family homestead as a national monument by prominent Maine politicians, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, independent U.S. Sen. Angus King and Democratic state Sen. Peggy Rotundo.
“Frances Perkins made her home in Maine. She was a trailblazer, the first female presidential Cabinet member, the mother of the modern labor movement, and a pioneering advocate for social justice, economic security, and workers’ rights,” Pingree said Thursday.
King praised Perkins for her deep devotion to workers’ rights, noting she played a “pivotal” role in the New Deal era, “truly a historic moment in time for the nation.”
“Her commitment to ensuring hardworking families have the resources to succeed and thrive is still felt today throughout the nation — from social security to unemployment insurance to the minimum wage,” King said.
In a July 31 letter to Biden obtained by the Post, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said a national monument designation would ensure Perkins’ legacy and accomplishments are “recognized and celebrated.”
“Maine is honored to count Frances Perkins as one of our own, and we would be honored to have a new national monument in her honor,” Mills wrote.
