• 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

Real Estate Sales in Norfolk Are on the Rise

Connecticut is proving attractive to people wanting to leave New York City By Ruth Melville A recent article in The Hartford Courant reported that since the pandemic started in March, thousands of New Yorkers have moved to Connecticut. Postal Service data from March through June of this year shows that 16,000 New Yorkers switched their […]

Videographer Phylis Bernard Provides Online Records of Norfolk Meetings

Keeping the Community Informed By Colleen GundlachPhoto by Savage Frieze Do you have a question about what was discussed at last month’s virtual selectman’s meeting or what happened when the school board got together to discuss reopening the school? If so, Phylis Bernard is the person to ask. For the past couple of decades she […]

A Field Guide Highlights the History and Beauty of Great Mountain Forest

By Mattie Vandiver Norfolk’s Great Mountain Forest is a natural area full of hiking trails, wildlife, history, forestry and beauty. Those looking to find out more about the riches of GMF will enjoy an informative field guide published in 2016 under the auspices of the Yale Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry. Entitled “A Fieldbook: Great […]

Fifth Weekend in Norfolk Is Going to Be Different

Annual festival moves online By Clinton J. Sosna This year’s summer Weekend in Norfolk (WIN), in its fifth installment, comes amid a global pandemic. A situation ripe with mandates, social distancing requirements, reopening phases, spikes, shifts and updates. Our experience of normal is no longer normal. Neither will be this year’s Weekend in Norfolk.   Despite […]

Canaan YMCA to Reopen August 10

New safety procedures in place to safeguard members By Chris Sinclair The Northwestern Connecticut YMCA, comprising branches in Torrington, Winsted and Canaan, has joined other businesses and nonprofits over the last several weeks in beginning their slow and gingerly march toward reopening amid the pandemic. The Canaan branch, to which many Norfolk residents belong, will […]

Early Automobilists Find Their Way to Norfolk

By Andra Moss Just when travel seemed so modern—the Mountain Express train barreled along from Hartford to Canaan at speeds up to 37 miles per hour—something new came clanging, hissing and rattling over the hilltops. It was 1900. American automaking was still in its infancy, but change was coming fast (“fast” being a relative term; […]

100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

This month sees the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote. The amendment was adopted after Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on August 18, 1920. One month later, on September 18, 1920, two hundred Norfolk women went to Town Hall and […]

“This Shouldn’t Happen to Anyone”

Residents and activist group appeal council’s decision on new turbine By Wiley Wood On March 6, the Connecticut Siting Council approved the construction of a new turbine on Flagg Hill. Considerably taller than the two existing ones, and generating roughly as much energy as the other two combined, it will sit just within the Colebrook […]

Church in the Time of Covid-19

Bringing the Church Family Back Together By Kelly Kandra Hughes Norfolk is home to three different churches within the town limits: The Church of the Transfiguration (Episcopalian church), Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and Norfolk Church of Christ Congregational (UCC). As the town slowly opens up and returns to a new kind of normal, the question […]

Payroll Protection Program Lending Period Is Over

Additional legislation relaxes terms for paying back loans By Ruth Melville The Payroll Protection Program (PPP), part of the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed to help businesses weather the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, has come to an end. The deadline for the second round of funding was June 30, and National Iron […]

A Beautiful Piece of Norfolk History in the Woods

The bridge at Campbell Falls By Andra Moss During pre-Revolutionary War days, an early Connecticut entrepreneur, John Campbell, operated a grist-mill alongside a powerful cascade that he may never have imagined would still bear his name three centuries later: Campbell Falls. Today, those falls are part of the Campbell Falls State Park, although some might […]

Norbrook Brewery, a Place of Refuge from Stresses of the World

Food trucks are now an added feature By Doug McDevitt In March we went into a lockdown. Boarded everything up. Donned our masks and only ventured out for necessities. Many thought well, it’ll only be for a couple weeks, it’ll pass soon enough. Over three months later, we’re still grappling with a new way of […]