• 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 […]

  • A Look Into Norfolk’s Past

    Exhibit Explores Pupin’s Haven of Happiness on Westside Road By Patricia Platt The Norfolk Historical Museum graces Norfolk’s village green with the reserve and understated elegance of a New Englander well worth getting to know. Visitors who step inside will find exhibits that tell the stories of the town’s past, often with intriguing ties to […]

  • Norfolk Past and Present

    The Summer Chapel Eases Gracefully Into Its 130 Years By Elizabeth Bailey Ayreslea Rowland Denny began attending services at The Church of the Transfiguration in Norfolk in 1939 on the eve of World War II. A New Yorker, she was a student at the Chapin School in New York City, but her family had been […]

  • Church Steeple Shines Once Again

    Local dignitaries and friends of Norfolk’s Church of Christ Congregational gathered on Saturday, May 25, to formally celebrate the completion of the steeple restoration project. The Rev. Erick Olsen thanked the community for supporting the years-long effort and welcomed everyone to enjoy a splendid cake featuring an image of the steeple.

  • Making the Native… Personal

    Cheryl Heller Builds a Wild Garden in Norfolk By Joe Kelly Gardens are best when they’re personal, argued the late Fred McGourty, who remains Norfolk’s best- known plantsmen. McGourty’s 1989 book, “The Perennial Gardener,” recounts the gardens he and his wife, Mary Ann, created at Hillside, their home near Dennis Hill State Park. Were he […]

  • This Old Norfolk House

    Stevens House By Joe KellyWhen our Puritan forebears arrived on these shores in the early 1600s, they were no doubt surprised todiscover how the traditional thatched roof cottages they knew from back home were no match for thewind and cold of a typical New England winter. But it would have likely surprised them even more […]

  • Can wildlife safely cross Norfolk’s Roads?

    By Shelley Harms Where are animals crossing Norfolk’s roads? Are they making it across? Is it possible to make theircrossings safer? Julia Rogers, Senior Land Protection Manager at the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), helped agroup of interested Norfolk residents explore these questions at a training session sponsored by theNorfolk Land Trust on March 22 at […]

  • Great Mountain Forest’s New Executive Director Returns to His Connecticut Roots

    By David Beers Mike Zarfos started his new position as executive director of Great Mountain Forest (GMF) at the end ofFebruary. It has been a lively time for Zarfos and his family; in addition to moving from Washington,D.C., to Connecticut, they are expecting a baby in April. Zarfos grew up in Deep River, Conn., where […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    In the late 19th century, the arrival of every train at the depot on Station Place was widely anticipated.There were freight trains, milk trains and passenger trains unloading throngs of summer visitors. Theattractive station pictured here was built in 1898, replacing an earlier modest structure. Constructed ofnative granite, it was designed by Hill & Turner, […]

Articles

The New Tobey Pond Shed Has Arrived

Norfolk Benefits from Eagle Scout Project By David Beers Only 4 percent of scouts ever achieve the highest rank—Eagle Scout. Ethan Perlman is now part of this select group by completing his community service project: a new Tobey Pond lifeguard shed. A year ago, Perlman had hit a roadblock in getting town wetlands and zoning […]

New Accordion Museum Has a Tight Squeeze on History

by Andra Moss “Whoa!” This is the delighted response of visitor after visitor upon stepping inside the New England Accordion Connection & Museum Company (NEACMC), newly opened in the historic Canaan Union Depot railroad station alongside the railroad museum and Great Falls Brewing Company. The word does pretty much capture the experience: the museum’s large […]

Mapping the Future of Norfolk’s Public Trails

Project will consolidate data on every hiking path in one online site Text by Andra MossPhoto by Dawn Whalen Looking for a great public trail in Norfolk? Hikers are definitely spoiled for choice, with dozens of miles of wooded paths, former carriage roads, logging trails and railway beds silently beckoning. Whatever one’s perambulatory mood, be […]

Freund’s Farm Offers Stroll & Graze for Enjoyment and Education

by Colleen Gundlach Combining the beauty of 200 contiguous acres of cropland with an understanding of how this land can be part of the climate change solution, Freund’s Farm in East Canaan is an example of how local farmers work for farmland preservation while protecting the environment. To share both the beauty and the science, […]

New Gateways Welcome Visitors to Town

By Doreen Kelly “Village Improvement Together!” is the motto of the Norfolk Community Association (NCA), and there couldn’t be a more fitting description of its most recently completed undertaking—the Welcome to Norfolk beautification project, made possible by a grant from The Evan Hughes Charitable Trust and in partnership with the Norfolk Economic Development Commission (EDC). […]

Winchester Youth Services Bureau Assists Young People in Area Towns

Health and Welfare in Town Budget by Colleen Gundlach Through the town budget, Norfolk residents support several nonprofit social service organizations, some of which have been featured in past issues of Norfolk Now. With pandemic-related lockdowns and social isolation, these agencies have proved to be more important than ever before in maintaining the mental and […]

Suffragists Hit the Road to Norfolk

by Andra Moss Something special was in the air in August 1911. It was the sound of women’s voices rising, once again, to demand their right to vote. Decades of unsuccessful advocacy for women’s suffrage in Connecticut had left many discouraged at the turn of the 20th century, but by 1911 fresh winds were blowing. […]

Combating the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

by Mattie Vandiver The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is an insect native to Japan that was first noted in Connecticut in 1985 when a foliage sample was brought to the research station in New Haven. Since then it has been an ongoing issue in Connecticut as well as many other states, although Norfolk has barely […]

Tom Hlas Has Signed, Sealed, and Delivered with Mail Art

Text by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto by Tom Hlas Tom Hlas always knew he wanted to be an artist. Born and raised in Elberon, Iowa (population at the time about 100 people), Hlas remembers being four years old and playing with cars on his parents’ chenille bedspread. When his oldest sister, home from college, asked him […]

The Healing Nest Is a New Center for Wellness and Community

By Ruth Melville When Dianna Hofer was young, she was fascinated with the placebo effect and startled to learn that people normally use only 5 percent of their brains. In college, as she studied more about the mind, she began to think of it as “the greatest new frontier.” Four decades of continuing investigation into […]

Helping Hands Are Everywhere If You Know Where to Look

By Doug McDevitt Norfolk is a community, much like any other, where some neighbors are in great need but may not know where to go or whom to reach out to for help. The good news is that Norfolk has many avenues for people to discreetly receive help.  One such avenue is Norfolk NET, short […]

Conservation Commission Serves to Protect Norfolk’s Natural Resources

Town Boards, Commissions, & Committees by Ruth Melville Every town in Connecticut is empowered by the state to have a conservation commission, whose duties are to care “for the development, conservation, supervision and regulation of natural resources, including water resources.” To fulfill this mission, the Norfolk Conservation Commission (NCC) is active on several fronts, from […]