Norfolk Then…
Roller skating fever struck Norfolk in 1885, as it did many towns across the country. The Norfolk Roller Skating Association had 30 members that year, and the rink was in the newly-constructed Village Hall (pictured here at that time). The first roller skating rink had been opened at the Atlantic House resort hotel in Newport, […]
Norfolk Then
Royal Arcanum Tenants Dedicated to Insuring Lives Once there was a tower in Norfolk from which Rapunzel could have let down her hair. Rising from the east end of the Royal Arcanum building (built in 1904), it served as a hose tower for the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD). The Royal Arcanum was a joint […]
Norfolk Then…
Chickens on roller skates? Marie Kendall was a very creative photographer, and she must have had some pretty cooperative chickens, merry or not as they “roll along” in this Christmas greeting. Many of Kendall’s surprising and delightful images of Norfolk can be found in Picturing Norfolk: 1758-1958, available for holiday purchase at the Norfolk Library […]
Norfolk Then…
Meet the Bishop family outside their home near the Norfolk-North Goshen town line. There’s Ernest and Sadie to the left of their father, George; Jennie in the center behind Elsie; Martha and Mabel in front of their mother, Rose, who holds the baby. Although the children aren’t particularly bundled up, it must be cold: a […]
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 Norfolk Pub). Next to Harold’s fedora, a bottle of 7up sits on a bench in the lower right […]
Norfolk Then…
Before centralizations, the Norfolk district school system included 11 grammar schools, each managed by a local school committee. Schoolhouses were simple one-room structures with a wood stove provoking heat. The North Middle School still stands at the corner of Ashpohtag and Bald Mountain Roads. The district schools served a varying number of children, and teachers were usually […]
Norfolk Then…
Norfolk Then Fire Chief Martin O’Connor takes the first dig during ground-breaking ceremonies for a new firehouse on June 6, 1970. Also pictured are (from left): Peter Mulville (builder), Walter Allyn (Selectman), O’Connor, Robert Mead (Chairman of the Building Committee), and Russell Childs (architect). The need for larger quarters had become particularly pressing when the […]
Norfolk Then…
The Yankees and the Red Sox are back at it, but does anyone remember the rivalry between the Crickets and the Spiders? In 1915, a New York lawyer by the name of George Case laid out a baseball field adjacent to his summer home on Sunset Ridge. There he sponsored two teams made up of […]
Norfolk Then…
Norfolk’s Village Hall provided a variety of entertainment for townspeople at the turn of the 20 th century, as this 1906 photograph of the Arcanum Minstrels illustrates. At that time professional minstrel shows were on the wane, having been replaced by vaudeville, although amateur troupes such as this one continued to make use of blackface […]
