• Sweets on the Green

    A Decade of Decadent Desserts By Andra Moss How is your naughty versus nice rating? Those needing to influence Santa with an especially impressive treat should grab their stockings and head to the Norfolk Historical Society (NHS) for the 10th Annual Cake Auction on Saturday, Dec. 7.     Now a Norfolk holiday tradition, the event was […]

  • Artist Tom Burr Brings His Torrington Project to an End

    Performances celebrate studio closing By Stephen Melville Norfolk resident and artist Tom Burr organized a day of performances and exhibition at his studio in Torrington on Oct. 26, marking an end to what he has called “The Torrington Project.” For the past three and a half years, Burr has rented a vast—15,000 square foot—former industrial […]

  • New Meanings for a Monument

    Light Shines on the Memorial Green By Joe Kelly On Monday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day, a crowd of about 100 gathered for the rededication of Norfolk’s World War 1 memorial, artfully restored under the auspices of the Norfolk Community Association. It was sunny. Temperatures in the low ‘60’s. Another day of no rain. Everyone talked […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1920s postcard shows Memorial Green just after the War Memorial, designed by Alfredo Taylor, was built. It was Taylor’s wife Minna who first proposed that a memorial “heroes grove” be planted on the small lot of land known as the Triangle opposite the Catholic Church. The lot had been left empty with the demolition […]

  • Restored war memorial to be celebrated on veterans day

    plaque now honors all who served By Patricia Platt A World War I monument, designed by Alfredo Taylor and erected on Norfolk’s Memorial Green in 1921, bears the inscription, “for those who gave and those who offered their lives for liberty, the people of Norfolk have built this monument and crowned it with the Liberty […]

  • NLT Tail Ablaze with Runners

    More than 120 runners enjoyed perfect fall weather as they wound their way through picturesque Barbour Woods in the 11th Annual Norfolk Land Trust Trail Race. Some chose to add a challenging loop over Haystack Mountain, while the half-marathoners just kept moving on up—topping out at over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. *photo by June […]

  • Can you spot the Real Curler?

    There was movie magic ice to be made, and the pros of the Norfolk Curling Club were the first to get the call. In October, NCC’s Jon Barbagallo, Lou Barbagallo, Rachel Barbagallo, Mark Walsh, Harvey Chalmers and Phill West were hired by a production company to make curling ice at a Rhode Island hockey rink […]

  • 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 […]

  • The chicken who wanted to be a star and other tales from a norfolk movie set

    By Andra Moss Secrets and small towns don’t often pair well, and Norfolk is a small town. Yet, for eight weeks this summer, a crew of nearly 100 people quietly transformed Tim and Paula Webster’s 1908 Norfolk farmhouse into a film set for a feature-length production, all the while staying under the local radar.  It […]

  • great blue heron rookeries

    working together to provide sustainable breeding habitats By Jude Mead Great Blue Herons are a familiar sight in Norfolk and are one of the largest of all North American herons, standing up to four feet tall with a wingspan of close to six feet. They are most noticeable in flight as they soar across the […]

  • 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 lawn […]

  • Looking Back Over the Years

    The End of an Era for Norfolk Now By Colleen Gundlach After 10 years and over 30 issues, Ruth Melville has put on her Norfolk Now editor’s hat for the last time. In June, the paper marked the end of an era with the publication of Ruth’s final issue as one of the executive editors […]

Articles

Recap of November 2021 Elections

By Andra MossPhoto by Kelly Kandra Hughes The results of Norfolk’s 2021 municipal elections were officially released by Town Clerk Linda Perkins on Thursday, Nov. 4. Although local turnout for the election was not high, with 469 votes cast out of an electorate of 1,162, Norfolk’s voting rate of 44 percent still topped many Connecticut […]

Norfolk NET Wants to Give You $100 to Enrich the Town

New grant program will support projects that grow community by Kelly Kandra Hughes In Jan. 2020, Reverend Erick Olsen of the Church of Christ Congregational pitched an idea at a Norfolk NET (Networking Everyone Together) meeting:  a community contest with the goals of building new relationships, invigorating the town and, hopefully, encouraging more people to […]

Tenuta Market: Telling the Stories of Italian Foods

By Patricia Platt Two years ago, Ian Edwards studied Italian cooking at the renowned Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in rural Sicily. His love of Italian food led Edwards and his friend Travis Powell on meandering trips across Italy to explore the farms and estates where fine Italian ingredients are produced. Today, Edwards and Powell […]

Norfolk Library Awarded $15,000 in ARPA Funds

Buying hotspots, laptops, and iPads for patron use By Kelly Kandra Hughes Thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, the Norfolk Library is now the recipient of over $15,000 in grant money. ARPA is the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package designed to facilitate the United States’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Libraries […]

Infinity Hall Is Building Back With a New Menu and Improved Sound

By Michael Cobb After more than a year of being shut down, Infinity Hall reopened its doors to the public last summer. But managing lost revenue and surviving with the help of governmental assistance were only part of the equation. Infinity Hall had plenty of behind-the-scenes work to do in preparation for reopening, including maintenance […]

Eileen Fielding of the Sharon Audubon Society: A Lifetime of Watching Birds

It’s Only Natural Text By Jude MeadPhoto by Michael Moschen If anyone knows about birds, it is Eileen Fielding. She started volunteering at an Audubon sanctuary in Massachusetts when she was 13. Today, with a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Connecticut, she’s the center director for the Sharon Audubon Center.  […]

Winsted’s Railway Café Serves Up Mouthwatering Breakfast and Lunch Dishes

By Colleen Gundlach The Covid pandemic inflicted devastation on many business owners, particularly those of small businesses. From the lockdown last year to unemployment issues this year, these companies have been hard hit. One local entrepreneur is an exception, though. Winsted resident Carrie Stetson took the Covid lemons and turned them into lemonade. Stetson had […]

The Library’s Kelly Kandra Hughes is Keeping Norfolk Engaged

Community in Action Text by Janet Gokay MeaPhoto by Heath Hughes Mention Kelly Kandra Hughes, the Norfolk Library’s community engagement coordinator, to most of the library’s patrons and the first response usually is, “Oh, she’s done so much for this town!” And indeed, both she and her husband, Heath, who works as the office manager […]

How a Norfolk Man Came to be Chased by Bears in the Ozarks

A Look Into Norfolk’s Past Text by Andra MossPhoto Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society Grand adventures are often thought to be reserved for the young. One early Norfolk resident, however, embarked at the somewhat ripe age of 38 on an epic journey into the wilds of the Missouri Territory. His traveling companion became a […]

Cultural Enrichment Programs Return to Botelle as COVID Restrictions Loosen

Getting Back to Normal By Ann DeCerbo On Oct. 13, Botelle students gathered on the gym bleachers for “The Wacky Science Show” with scientist Mike Bent. As promised, the show delivered the “magic of theatre, attention-grabbing comedy, and scientific truths” that thoroughly engaged and entertained the audience of children and their teachers. The interactive science […]

Town Landfill Solar Farm on Track for Construction

By Dave Beers In 1995, the town landfill was full, and a request to the state for a landfill expansion was denied owing to concerns over groundwater contamination. The following year, the transfer station as we know it today was built. Many still endearingly still refer to it as ‘The Dump.” Twenty-five years later, the […]

No Longer a Bell, Norfolk’s Sirens Have a Unique History

Raising the Alarm by Colleen Gundlach Since 1907, the people of Norfolk have always had some manner of audible alarm to alert their volunteer firefighters to an emergency. In the beginning, it was a large bell, and someone needed to manually pull a rope to sound the alarm. Even though many changes have occurred over […]