By Ruth Melville

Looking over this issue of Norfolk Now, I couldn’t help thinking about the current renaissance in downtown Norfolk. When you count them all up, the changes over the past few years are remarkable. Last year alone saw the opening of the Berkshire Country Store, the construction of City Meadow, two buildings on Route 44 converted to affordable housing, new planters in and around Robertson Plaza and even some new Christmas lights. The Hub is due to open this spring (see p. xx). Even the National Iron Bank is renovating!

In addition, some of our most cherished historic buildings and landmarks have been restored and renewed. The restoration of the original clay-tile roof on the Norfolk Library—with new lighting and landscaping still to come—has made a dramatic change to the approach to town from the east. Less visible from the outside but equally vital to the town is the cleaning and restoration of the stained glass windows in Battell Chapel.

Looking though past issues of Norfolk Now (available on our website and fun to poke around in) proves that none of these accomplishments was a done deal. Just 10 years ago, Lloyd Garrison, also writing in a View from the Green, worried that “downtown Norfolk could soon become a ghost town.” The two businesses that were then occupying the former hardware store were both about to close, the Greenwoods Theater Building was set for a foreclosure sale, and the retailers in the building had been forced to vacate owing to a lack of heat.

But within a year of this gloomy prognosis, things were starting to shift as the Greenwoods building was reborn as Infinity Hall. The Station Place Café (see p. xx) opened in 2011, taking over the spot of the Whole Latte Love coffee shop, and the Artisans Guild reopened in the Royal Arcanum building the same year. And of course, Wood Creek Bar and Grill has different owners now and a different name, but “the pub” on the corner remains a mainstay of downtown.

I don’t particularly find change easy, and I admit that I still miss some of the old, “Main Street” stores that Norfolk used to have—the grocery store, the pharmacy and the hardware store. But this past year has been an exciting one, and with the formation of First Selectman Matt Riiska’s new Downtown Development Coordinating Committee (see p. xx), we’re not done yet.

For the past 10 years Norfolk Now has been committed to tracking developments in town, and we intend to keep reporting on changes, both good and bad. But in his 2007 column, Lloyd was also worried about the future of the paper, referring specifically to “the challenge of attracting and holding staff.” I think he would be reassured to see us still going strong, but he was right about the paper’s fragility. As he put it then, “Make no mistake about it: this publication could easily founder for lack of volunteers.” And that, he adds, “would be a shame.”