Aton Forest Holds Annual Census of Early Winter Birds
By Wiley Wood Although she has been taking part in Christmas Bird Counts for over 50 years, when Ayreslea Denny describes her bird encounters on the morning of December 31 in Aton Forest, her voice is full of excitement. “The number of birds we got was just unbelievable,” she said. A small group, […]
Dance Group Hosts Flash Mob in Great Barrington
By Ruth Melville On a frigid evening last December, the streets of Great Barrington were crowded with holiday shoppers taking part in the town’s annual Holiday Stroll. Slowly, a group of about 30 people—kids, teenagers and adults, gathered at the foot of Railroad Street. At first, nobody paid them much attention, but then a […]
Novelist and Cartoonist Peter Steiner Exhibits His Paintings
February’s Featured Artist at the Norfolk Library By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo There don’t seem to be enough creative expressions to satisfy Sharon resident Peter Steiner. His life path took him from college professor to cartoonist to novelist, with lots of painting along the way. Steiner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended University of […]
Notables—Senator Frederic Collin Walcott
Businessman, Humanitarian, Conservationist, Statesman By Michael Kelly Frederic Walcott was born in 1869 to a prominent family in New York Mills, NY. His great-great grandfather established the first cotton mills in New York state and garnered a sizable fortune. Walcott’s father married Emeline Alice Welch, daughter of noted Norfolk physician William Wickham Welch, forging […]
Through the Garden Gate
February, Precious Snowflakes By Leslie Watkins “Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated.”–Wilson Bentley Avalanches are sudden, unstoppable forces of nature. They gain mass, volume and momentum as they sweep down mountainsides. But even the mightiest of avalanches is made up of many small, harmless, fragile things—snowflakes. […]
Norfolk Then . . .
This 1917 photograph is a timely reminder of the long struggle fought by many dedicated women for basic civil liberties, including the right to own property, hold public office, sit on juries, participate in public assemblies and vote. The group of 25 suffragists—20 women and five men—gathered on the porch following their meeting with Congressman […]
Norfolk House Destroyed by Fire
A fire consumed the house of Larkin Hasbrouck at 49 Estey Road in Norfolk on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 7. After crawling out of his house to safety, Hasbrouck made his way to the home of his neighbor and friend, Norfolk Now photographer Bruce Frisch, who returned to the site of the fire to […]
Norfolk Men’s Team Take Home Curling Trophy
A second generation of Norfolk curlers comes into its own By Wiley Wood It’s been a long drought, but on Sunday, Dec. 4, a homegrown Norfolk team won the Calder Trophy at the Men’s Invitational Bonspiel, hosted by the Norfolk Curling Club (NCC). Eighteen teams competed, converging on Norfolk from Philadelphia, Boston, New York […]
Santa Attends Tree-Lighting Ceremony
The annual lighting of Norfolk’s Christmas tree brought many young spectators the village green on the evening of Nov. 27 and a visit from Santa Claus, who arrived in a light-spangled pumper truck chauffered by members of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department. Photos by Bruce Frisch.
Berkshire Mountain Springs—From the Fountainhead to Your Door
By Michael Kelly The most direct way to access Berkshire County’s wealth of cultural amenities is to drive north on route 272, a felicitous, forested, rural byway. Just 4.5 miles from Norfolk’s village green, near the cutoff to Campbell Falls, you cross into Massachusetts and subconsciously absorb subtle, topographical changes. Two miles further up the […]
