The Church of Christ Congregational is the picture of Victorian abundance in this exuberant Christmas evergreen display as photographed by Marie Kendall around 1900. Mary and Isabella Eldridge, daughters of the Rev. Joseph Eldridge, were responsible for many of the decorations in the church at this time. From their elaborate Italian gardens which descended in terraces to the south of their house, now Battell House on the Village Green, gardener Thomas Higgins created floral displays so profuse one wonders whether the minister was even visible at the front of the church. During the holiday season, the Eldridge sisters also gave the children in town a special treat. They chartered a train to Hartford or New York, where dinner at a fine restaurant was followed by shopping and sightseeing. “Miss Mary’s Santa Claus Specials,” as these annual train excursions came to be called, often had as many as 300 passengers and were a highlight of the year for the children of Norfolk. 

— Text by Ann Havemeyer
— Photo courtesy of The Norfolk Historical Society