Norfolk Then . . .
The year is 1945, and young Augustus Curtiss, known as Gus, is getting a haircut. It is close quarters in Harold Colwell’s barber shop tucked away in a small room in the Royal Arcanum building (now the Wood Creek Bar & Grill). Next to Harold’s fedora, a bottle of 7-up sits on a bench in […]
Norfolk Then…
Norfolk’s first consolidated school was the Center School, built in 1914. Designed by Ehrick Rossiter, architect of the Music Shed and several school buildings on the Hotchkiss campus, Center School accommodated children in kindergarten through 8th grade. It had eight spacious classrooms, a teachers’ room, lavatories, a book room and a large playroom. The school […]
Norfolk Then…
Tennis at Town Hall? The building we know as Town Hall was originally the Eldridge Gymnasium, built in 1892. Located within easy walking distance of hotels and boarding houses in Norfolk at the turn of the last century, the Gymnasium was a popular gathering place for both residents and visitors. People played croquet on the […]
Norfolk Then
This familiar building with a handsome touring car parked in front was Dodd’s Garage. The son of an Irish immigrant farmer, Martin B. Dodd (1881-1944) was an early and very successful entrepreneur in the automobile industry. He began quite simply in livery, hanging his shingle in an old blacksmith shop with one car available for […]
Norfolk Then
Imagine fishing in late 19th century Norfolk. Although we donít know exactly where this photograph was taken, the shallow pond could be Wood Creek. Among those pictured here are three generations of the Wheeler family who lived nearby: grandfather Hiram Wheeler, his daughter Mary, and his grandchildren Bessie and Fred Riggs, the children of Nettie […]
Norfolk Then . . .
Spring piglets? Although we don’t know the time of year this photograph was taken, the litter of piglets asleep near the warmth of a cast-iron stove may well have been born at the end of a long Norfolk winter. The photograph is one of many Marie Hartig Kendall (1854-1943) took of Norfolk farm scenes at […]
Norfolk Then . . .
From Mother Goose to Ogden Nash, March winds have been the poet’s muse. In the familiar nursery rhyme, they bring April showers and May flowers. In 1888, however, March winds brought in the biggest blizzard to hit the Northeast in recorded history. Beginning on March 12, the storm lasted three days and crippled the region […]
Norfolk Then . . .
With the Norfolk Curling Club back in full swing, or sweep, have a look at the earliest days of curling in Norfolk. The sport was introduced here 60 years ago by Elisabeth Childs, whose father John Walcott Calder had been an avid curler in Utica, New York. The first games were held on Tamarack Pond […]
Norfolk Then
Holiday greetings from farm country in the early 1890’s. Photographer Marie Kendall set up this enchanting tableau in the back yard of the family home on Greenwoods Road, opposite the entrance to Westside Road. Look carefully in the distance across the town meadow and you can see the houses that lined Laurel Way in a […]
