Norfolk Then…
This photograph of the Norfolk Library with empty shelves was probably taken just before the Library opened its doors for the first time on March 6, 1889. Isabella Eldridge, one of the five daughters of the Rev. Joseph and Sarah Battell Eldridge, built the Library both as a memorial to her parents and as a […]
Norfolk Then . . .
It was February of 1933, and a large crowd gathered at Canaan Mountain to watch the Norfolk Winter Sports Association (NWSA) annual ski-jumping competition. The 150-foot natural slope had just been completed to designs by Scandinavian skier Birger Torrissen and built by John Mulville. Torrissen was among a group of Olympic competitors who had been […]
Norfolk Then . . .
December brings the Calder Trophy Men’s Bonspiel to Norfolk. Established about 1960, the trophy is named after John Walcott Calder of Utica, NY, a veteran curler who curled in the first-ever Olympic demonstration at the 1936 Winter Games in Lake Placid. Calder’s daughter, Elisabeth, introduced the sport to Norfolk when she married Ted Childs, and […]
Norfolk Then . . .
Can you find the leg of mutton in this scene? The turkey doesn’t seem quite big enough to feed the clan gathered on the porch for Thanksgiving. Perhaps it is just the carcass that’s proudly displayed on the platter. Father didn’t take off his apron after carving the bird but quickly donned a coat to […]
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 […]
