Visiting the Homestead brings the stories of Frances Perkins to life, highlighting her modest but comfortable home — the place that shaped her character to focus on improving the lives of all Americans.

Throughout her lifetime, Frances Perkins often lived and found respite at her family’s homestead, a saltwater farm located on the banks of the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, Maine. Settled by the Perkins family in the mid-18th century, the Homestead consists of a well-preserved 1837 Brick House and connected barns on 57 acres within a protected landscape of fields and forest. The land features 2.8 miles of picturesque stone walls defining pastures and woodland, and remains of 18^th and 19^th century home sites, and remnants of wharves, clay pits and kilns connected with the family’s 19^th century brick-making business. 

Learn more about the Frances Perkins Center’s Collections and Stewardship and Preservation work.