• 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

Norfolk’s Mountaintop Views Just Got Clearer

State to provide signage describing scenic Haystack Mountain vistas by Jude Mead Haystack Mountain State Park in Norfolk offers many walking and hiking trails. The most popular is the mildly rigorous trek that follows a trail up the mountain to a stone observation tower with a 360-degree view of mountain ranges, lakes and historical town […]

Leave It to the Beavers

Rails to Trails group outsmarts the dam beavers by Doug McDevitt After a long winter of hard work, families in the communities surrounding Norfolk wanted a respite from their daily routine and Norfolk was the perfect summer getaway, so they boarded the Mountain Express that ran west from Hartford to Canaan. The huge 4-4-0, number […]

Who’s Up for a Game of Peggy

Botelle Beat Text by Andra MossPhoto by Chris Snyder Botelle 5th and 6th graders spent May 14 in the one-room schoolhouse on Ashpohtag Road as part of the annual—and much anticipated—History Day. After several weeks deep-diving into Colonial American history as part of their social studies class with 5th grade teacher Chris Snyder, the students […]

NVFD Planning to Build New, Bigger Firehouse

Current building too small for safety and efficiency By Doug McDevitt From a cat in a tree to a perilous rescue in a burning building, our first responders are always on call and ready to respond. It’s common knowledge that when others are running away from danger, there are those who run to it, and […]

Whatever Happened to Mad River Market?

by Colleen Gundlach A year ago, the Mad River Market project was in full swing, growing its membership by 50 percent in 2019. In 2020, they recruited only 28 new owner/members and have had little or no social media contact. It was a difficult year for most small businesses, and especially for struggling start-up companies. […]

Discovering the Short-Lived Beauty of Wildflowers

by Mattie Vandiver As spring enters her prime, the ephemerals begin to bloom in Barbour Woods, Great Mountain Forest and many other places around Norfolk and throughout New England. Spring ephemerals are wild flowers that grow, as the name implies, for a short period of time, mostly during the month of May in Connecticut. In […]

Culinary Retreats to Begin at Husky Meadows Farm in June

By David Beers There is a growing air of expectancy at Husky Meadows Farm. As the natural world gradually comes to life, so does the farm. Not only are the crops greening up, but also a new venture, Seed and Spoon Culinary Retreats, is starting in June. Tracy Hayhurst, her crew, and many commissioned Norfolk […]

Norfolk’s Young Entrepreneurs

by Kelly Kandra Hughes Ambition, dreams and parental encouragement have led to a wealth of young entrepreneurs in Norfolk. For seven-year-old Mia Heller, the desire for her own business began with wanting to start a nature club focused on “unpolluting water.” Mia imagined a place where she and her friends could meet, play and think […]

Celebrity Priest Visited Norfolk on Thanksgiving in 1869

A Look Into Norfolk’s Past By Andra Moss In the Spring 1895 issue of Connecticut Quarterly (“Devoted to the Literature, History and Picturesque Features of Connecticut”), there appears a beautifully written essay on Norfolk by Adele Greene. She notes its natural beauties and praises its residents, including the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge, who “was for […]

Exiling Dr. Seuss

Library moves books from children’s room to up section by Kelly Kandra Hughes When the company that controls Dr. Seuss books and characters decided to pull six of the late author’s titles from its publication list, the Norfolk Library had a decision to make. What to do about four of the titles in its collection? […]

Norfolk Resident Produces True Crime Podcasts From His Home Studio

Murder on Maple Avenue by Michael Cobb Bill Thomas’s interest in murder is personal. A true crime podcast producer based in Norfolk, Thomas got started in podcasting after his younger sister, Cathy Thomas, and her girlfriend, Rebecca Dowsky, were killed in Virginia in an unsolved case known as the “Colonial Parkway Murders.” Between 1986 and […]

A Lightning Cure for Rheumatism

People flocked to Norfolk for a shard from a tree Text by Andra MassPhoto by Savage Frieze In July 1902, The Boston Globe and the Minneapolis Journal reported that Jonathan W. James of Queens River, R.I., had found a cure for his rheumatism.  According to reports, “Lightning struck Mr. James last week and the cure […]