Maine
Women’s History Month puts spotlight on Maine people and places
Actor Danny Kaye, left, with U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and actor Jimmy Stewart during the 1955 Overseas Press Club dinner. Photo courtesy of the Margaret Chase Smith Library
It’s not hard to localize Women’s History Month in Maine. You can start by learning about some of the amazing women from Maine who’ve left their mark on politics, literature and various other fields.
There’s Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan, the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the the classic anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” while living in Brunswick. Frances Perkins retreated to her home in Newcastle when she wasn’t helping reshape American labor laws as Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
There are also local self-guided tours and guided tours of sites important in the history of women in the U.S., as well as reading lists at Maine libraries and other events. Women’s History Month is celebrated annually in March.
TRAILBLAZERS
The Portland Women’s History Trail is divided into seven self-guided walks around the city, and introduces people to women from two centuries of history. The trail’s website features maps, routes and descriptions of each site. The Congress Street Walk, for example, highlights women at work and in the arts. One of the sites is the Curtis & Sons Chewing Gum factory on Fore Street (now Hub Furniture) where young women toiled in the late 1800s. Another is the Exchange Street building where Gail Laughlin (1868-1952), a prominent lawyer and suffragist, had her office in the early 1900s. The Congress Street walk also includes the “Little Water Girl” statue inside the Portland Public Library, which honors Lillian Ames Stevens (1844-1914), the second president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Several sites on the Munjoy Hill walk focus on the homes of individual women, including Hattie Branch (1898-1995), a Black woman who worked at Union Station and as a housekeeper, and Edith Beaulieu, who raised her family on the hill while serving in the state Legislature in the 1970s and ’80s. There are also walks covering Gorham’s Corner, State Street, Stevens Avenue, Stroudwater and the West End. The walks range in number of sites from less than a dozen to about two dozen.
First Parish Church in Portland is one of the sites on the Congress Street walk of the Portland Women’s History Trail. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald
Embark Maine Tours in Bath runs a guided tour of women’s history in the City of Ships. The one-mile walking tour focus on the lives of women in Bath, from varying backgrounds, who stepped into public life between 1850 and 1920. One story shared on the tour is about Annie Hayden writing to her sweetheart Thomas W. Hyde (later founder of Bath Iron Works) in September of 1862, asking about his injury at the battle of Antietam during the Civil War. People on the tour also learn about Mary Heuston, an enslaved woman from South Carolina, brought to Maine in 1850 during a family vacation to care for children. With the help of the local African American community, Heuston self-emancipated and lived in Maine until her death in 1913. Tours are 90 minutes, cost $25 per person, and are scheduled this month for March 22 and 29.
A women’s history tour group in Bath, in front of a home shared by Annie Hayden Hyde and Thomas Hyde. Photo courtesy of Embark Maine Tours
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress, as a member of the House of Representatives from 1940 to 1949 and the Senate from 1949 to 1973. She gained national attention in 1950 for denouncing the methods used by Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy in his anti-communist crusade, in what came to be known as her “Declaration of Conscience” speech. At the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, people can schedule appointments to tour the archive, museum and public policy center. There are documents, awards, photos and other memorabilia from her political career. At some point in the spring, the library will likely resume normal operating hours, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
A painted portrait of Margaret Chase Smith hangs within the former U.S. senator’s homestead in Skowhegan, where, in an attached library, there is a section devoted to her unsuccessful presidential run in 1964. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald
Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in a U.S. president’s Cabinet, as Secretary of Labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, and is recognized as the driving force behind such transformational New Deal measures as Social Security, the 40-hour work week, child labor laws and the minimum wage. When not in Washington, D.C., she lived at her family’s longtime home on River Road in Newcastle, which was declared Maine’s second national monument last year. Right now, people can walk the trails and grounds of the Frances Perkins National Monument, and see the house from the outside. This summer, the staff plans to open the self-guided exhibit about Perkins in the property’s historic barn, with a gift shop.
The Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, the site of Perkins’ longtime home. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald
THE WRITE STUFF
The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick is where the influential anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852) was written. It’s also where Stowe sheltered John Andrew Jackson, a formerly enslaved man seeking his freedom. People can see the room where Stowe wrote in the house, which is now owned by Bowdoin College and also houses faculty offices. The house is open most Thursdays and Fridays from noon-3 p.m., as well as by appointment. The house also hosts talks about Stowe’s life, and staff may do historical walks around Brunswick once the weather is warmer.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
The Portland Public Library has created a reading list for Women’s History Month, with a focus on contributions women have made to the nation. A few of the titles include: “Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion” by Michelle Dean; “The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote” by Elaine F. Weiss; “Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History” by Blair Imani; “A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women who Desegregated America’s Schools” by Rachel Devlin; and “The Women of Hip-hop” by Sheila Griffin Llanas. The list has a total of 29 titles and can be found on the library’s website.
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This story will be updated.
The Maine Department of Transportation is moving to slash up to $400 million in projects from its agenda, a shocking and abrupt cutback that is rattling the state’s construction industry at the start of building season.
Roughly $50 million across six pavement projects have already been delayed, according to a memo exclusively obtained by the Bangor Daily News. The agency plans to cut or delay another $150 million in bridge, highway, intersection and multimodal projects later this month. A further $200 million or more in cuts are planned in the next three-year work plan.
Those figures were outlined by Transportation Commissioner Dale Doughty in the May 18 memo to Gov. Janet Mills that has since circulated widely in the transportation sector, which has been getting drip-by-drip details on the wide scope of the cuts over the past three weeks.
It comes at the beginning of the state’s relatively narrow construction season. Companies have hired workers and ordered materials for projects they expected to begin this summer. The severity of the transportation budget problems was not raised to lawmakers during the 2026 legislative session.
Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, called the shortfall “deeply troubling” in a statement.
“We stand ready to work with policymakers, stakeholders, and industry partners to identify both immediate and long-term solutions,” Flagg said. “Maine cannot afford to fall further behind.”
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The cuts stem from a structural funding gap of at least $130 million in the state’s current work plan, according to Doughty’s memo. Losses are magnified because state money from the gas tax and other revenue sources is matched by federal funds. Lawmakers have long grappled with politically difficult long-term problems with the state’s transportation budget.
A Mills spokesperson said Wednesday morning that the administration was working on a response to questions from the BDN. The department says it needs roughly $240 million more in state capital funding annually to maintain the existing system, and that anything less than $200 million will erode it over time.
Doughty’s memo the only near-term solution is a series of bonds beginning as soon as possible. Lawmakers would have to return to Augusta to authorize that if one is going to appear on the November ballot.
The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Michael Capeci is the former chairman of the Bangor GOP.
Let’s be honest about Maine’s current state.
For many families, the cost of living has become unsustainable. Housing is out of reach for many young people. Energy bills keep rising. Many small businesses are struggling under taxes and regulations that make it harder to grow. Rural hospitals are under strain and despite years of increased state spending, the results are not showing up in people’s daily lives.
Concurrently, Maine continues to lose young workers to other states. That is not a statistic, it is a warning sign.
To me, the question in this Republican primary for governor is not about slogans. It is whether we continue with a political approach that has failed to reverse these trends, or whether we nominate someone with new ideas. I think that someone is Owen McCarthy.
Owen is not a political insider. He is an entrepreneur from Patten, a small town where opportunity is not assumed, it is built. He grew up in a working-class family, became the first in his family to graduate from college graduating from the University of Maine, and founded MedRhythms, a healthcare technology company focused on neurological treatment.
He didn’t just talk about opportunity. He built it. That distinction matters, because Maine’s problem is not a lack of debate it is a lack of results. We have seen the trajectory: higher costs, slower growth, and a steady outmigration of young workers. I believe Owen McCarthy represents a break from that pattern.
His Maine 2040 plan focuses on creating 50,000 new jobs in sectors where Maine has real advantages — maritime and defense, advanced forest products, and life sciences. These are export-driven industries tied directly to Maine’s workforce, geography, and institutions. What sets Owen apart is not only what he proposes, but how he approaches governing.
He prioritizes modernizing permitting so projects do not stall. He supports using technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency. He focuses on making it easier to build, hire, and expand in Maine.
That same practical mindset extends to healthcare. Expanding telehealth, strengthening EMS systems, improving provider flexibility, and shifting toward earlier intervention are not abstract reforms. They are system upgrades designed to improve access while controlling costs.
Maine voters consistently respond to competence. They reward candidates who understand problems and present plans to solve them. I believe they are tired of rhetoric that does not translate into results, and skeptical of politics that prioritizes messaging over execution.
Owen’s approach is grounded in solving the issues that shape daily life — affordability, healthcare access, job creation, and government efficiency. That is not just policy positioning. It is a governing model that speaks directly to voters.
Some will point to his lack of political experience. But I believe Maine’s core problems are not the result of insufficient political experience; they are the result of policies that have failed to deliver measurable improvement. Experience inside a broken system, by itself, is not a solution.
If Republicans want to win, this primary must be taken seriously. From my perspective, it is not about choosing a nominee for governor who can energize the base. It is about selecting someone who can compete in a broader electorate that is frustrated and looking for change.
That requires a candidate who can speak beyond the base, not by abandoning principles, but by demonstrating competence and a credible plan to address Maine’s challenges. I believe Owen McCarthy offers that combination. He represents a shift away from managed decline and toward economic execution.
This is not just another primary. It is a decision about whether Republicans position themselves to win Maine or whether they remain trapped in a cycle of repeating the same strategies and expecting different outcomes.
If Republicans want to compete for Maine’s future, they cannot afford to nominate a candidate who only motivates part of the electorate. They need someone who expands it.
I believe Owen McCarthy is that candidate.
And if the goal is to win Maine, then the choice should be unmistakable
The only notable change in the top-seven of the Varsity Maine baseball poll is that Gorham now has eight first-place votes, two more than last week. The order of the seven teams is identical. In fact, the only change in the top-seven over the past three polls is the swap at the top after Gorham’s win over South Portland on May 19.
Furthermore, Gorham, South Portland, Oxford Hills, Cheverus, Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Fryeburg have been ranked in the top seven for four straight weeks, and six of those squads have been among the top seven in every poll this spring.
Meanwhile, Scarborough is ranked for the first time since May 5, and Ellsworth and Thornton swapped spots.
The Varsity Maine baseball poll is based on games played before June 2, 2026. The top 10 teams are voted on by the Varsity Maine staff, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points.
1. Gorham (8) 89
2. South Portland 79
3. Oxford Hills (1) 75
4. Cheverus 55
5. Bangor 42
6. Mt. Ararat 41
7. Fryeburg Academy 30
8. Ellsworth 27
9. Thornton Academy 25
10. Scarborough 12
Also receiving votes: Washington Academy 8, Monmouth Academy 4, Cony 4, Leavitt 2, Falmouth 2.
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