PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 13, 2025
One of America’s most important women spent many of her quieter days on the banks of the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, at a saltwater farm that had been in her family since colonial times. For Frances Perkins, a labor leader who helped create Social Security, the 57 acres of field and forest were a place to escape the rush of public business that normally consumed her. The modest brick house and barn she loved, as familiar to her as anywhere, are the centerpiece of a National Monument created in December, the culmination of years of effort by preservationists and Perkins devotees who knew that by preserving the home they would also succeed in highlighting the memory of the first woman to serve in a president’s Cabinet. The new national monument at her former farm opens to the public on June 21. ~ Steve Collins