Public service legacies of two Ithaca women preserved in statues

In emotional ceremonies attended by hundreds of people, life-size bronze statues of two 20th-century women whose legacies continue to improve people's lives were unveiled Aug. 17 in downtown Ithaca.

While Frances Perkins watched the policies she created as the New Deal-era U.S. secretary of labor unfold across the nation, Lucy Brown was helping shape Ithaca neighborhood housing and the futures of local families.

Both women worked at Cornell - Perkins in the ILR School, Brown in the College of Human Ecology and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Perkinswas a visiting lecturer from 1957 until her death in 1965; in 1960, at age 80, she became the first woman resident of Cornell's Telluride House and lived there the last five years of her life. Brown began working part-time at Cornell in food service while in high school, then became an administrative assistant known for mentoring students.

Meredith Bergmann, who sculpted their likenesses after an anonymous local donor funded the project, said she hopes the public will be "inspired to jump up and do some good themselves" after seeing the figures, portrayed on park benches.

Perkins' statue, at the corner of North Cayuga and Seneca streets, captures the humanity and warmth of a woman who began her government service in New York state before advancing labor rights and social welfare for Americans, said Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. '99, ILR's Kenneth F. Kahn '69 Dean and Martin F. Scheinman '75, M.S. '76, Professor of Conflict Resolution.

Chris Breiseth, Ph.D. '64, invited Perkins to live at Telluride. She enthusiastically accepted, joining the young men daily for lunch and dinner, and for discussions about history, current events, death and dying, their dates and their futures. Telluride housemates carried her casket at her funeral in New York City.

"We were her family here," Breiseth said at the event, recalling that Perkins had a fresh lobster dinner served with champagne at Telluride every spring to thank her housemates.

She shared with her young community her delight in her only grandchild, Tomlin Coggeshall, who attended the unveiling. "For Cornell and Ithaca to remember her … is poetry," he said.

Perkins' ceremony was emceed by George Boyer, the Martin P. Catherwood Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, a member of the six-person committee that drove the statues project.

Perkins was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's moral conscience and the most influential labor secretary in U.S. history, Boyer said. While living in Ithaca, she worshipped at St. John's Episcopal Church, about 50 steps from her sculpture.

Drizzle pushed the unveiling of the Brown statue, at the corner of West Clinton and South Geneva streets, into the gymnasium of the adjacent Henry St. John Apartments. Constance Graham, statues committee member and community leader, served as emcee; youngsters from the Southside Community Center and Greater Ithaca Activities Center danced and sang in honor of "Miss Lucy," as Brown is known. She lived on Albany Street for 86 years before moving to Decatur, Georgia, in 2020 to live with family members. Brown will be 91 in September.

Many on Saturday spoke of Brown's contributions and seemingly endless energy, including Matthys Van Cort, former Ithaca planning and development director who co-founded Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services. Brown, a co-founder of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, served on the Ithaca City School District Board of Education, the Board of Public Works, Ithaca Common Council and the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency Board. She raised four children on Albany Street, mentored young professionals and guided students during tumultuous times on campus.

Brown would walk to work on Stewart Avenue or through the Cascadilla Gorge, and then around Ithaca with a pad and pen, ready to listen and learn what needed to be done to improve the community, her children said.

After the program moved outside to the statue, Brown sat on the bench with the carving of her younger self and was swarmed by well-wishers.

She said she was inspired by a talk in Ithaca by a housing advocate from Cincinnati: "I thought, 'Let me get involved in this to help people find decent housing and own a home.'"

Mary Catt is communications director for the ILR School.

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