• 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

Teen Plans New Lifeguard Shed for Tobey Pond

By Wiley WoodPhoto of Ethan Perlman, top, by Savage Frieze Public beach adapts to Covid Ethan Perlman is in his second year as a lifeguard at the town’s public beach, so when he started looking for a project to earn his Eagle Scout ranking from Boy Scout Troop 19 in New Hartford, he quickly settled […]

The Gilson Movie Palace Reopens with Safety Protocols and Classic Films

By Clinton SosnaPhoto by Clinton Sosna “I’m a survivor. That’s what I do.” That’s what Alen Nero, the owner of the Gilson Cafe and Cinema in Winsted, tells customers and fans. Amid the uncertainty of these times, the Gilson reopened in mid-August with a weekend screening of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The dinner theater carefully […]

Familiar and Ever So Slightly Askew

by Stephen MelvillePhotos by Savage Frieze In a pandemic summer that has greatly reduced the customary prominence of art and music in Norfolk, one bright spot briefly emerged this past month when Betsy Gill hosted a show of sculpture and installation by artist Sophie Eisner, daughter of longtime Berkshire residents Gil Eisner and Kate Wenner. […]

Shop Fresh, Shop Local

Farm stands replace farmers markets this summer Text by Ruth MelvillePhoto by Savage Freize While it was disappointing that Norfolk Farmers Market decided that it couldn’t safely open this summer, local farmers kept growing vegetables, raising cows and milking goats. You can still get vegetables, meats, and herbs and flowers from many of the market […]

Back to Schools

A tour of Norfolk’s one-room schoolhouses By Andra Moss It’s September and that means that school, whatever form it takes, is back in session.  In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most American students attended a one-room schoolhouse within walking distance of their homes. In 1919 there were 190,000 one-room schools scattered throughout the American […]

Looking Back at the Primaries and Ahead to the General Election

by Susannah Wood In Norfolk, 261 ballots were submitted for the Aug. 11 primary. Of those, 138 were absentee. Five absentee ballots had to be rejected because the voters failed to sign the inner envelope. Democratic turnout was 46 percent, with 126 people voting absentee and 84 showing up in person. Former Vice-President Biden received […]

Great Mountain Forest Joins Regional and International Groups

by Mattie Vandiver When Tamara Muruetagoiena came to Great Mountain Forest last October as its executive director, there was an expectation that the organization might see some changes. The forest is a large tract of woodlands straddling the Norfolk and Falls Village line. Muruetagoiena, with master’s degrees in business administration and forestry sciences, has held […]

The End of the Beginning: Covid-19 Clinical Trials

By Richard Kessin It takes gall to channel Churchill’s World War II phrase, especially when we could be looking forward to the beginning of the end. But let’s keep our attention on the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.  All of the vaccines are designed to present a SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein to the human immune system and […]

“A Small School with a Big Heart” Plans for Reopening

By Virginia Coleman-Prisco Under the direction of Governor Ned Lamont and the Connecticut Department of Education (DOE), school districts have been required to develop plans for three scenarios for fall 2020: a full reopening of school with in-person instruction, a blend of in-person and remote instruction, and full remote instruction. School superintendent Mary Beth Iacobelli says […]

Voting During a Pandemic

Connecticut’s Presidential Primary Is August 11 By Susannah Wood For the first time in Connecticut, voters do not have to be sick, disabled or out of town in order to lawfully vote by absentee ballot. When applying for a ballot, voters can mark Covid-19 as the reason for their request. Governor Lamont’s emergency powers allowed […]

Art Barn Will Be Rebuilt

Ambitious project will benefit Yale Norfolk School of Art By Wiley WoodPhotos by Savage Frieze The undergraduate summer program conducted by the Yale School of Art in Norfolk since 1948 was canceled this year, like so much else. But it’s been a good thing in a way. Not for the 26 rising seniors from around […]

Connecting to the Internet in Norfolk—Part 3

What about fiber? By Dave Beers The first fiber optics were developed in the early 1900s for doctors to see inside the body, which led to the invention of the gastroscope in 1956. Fiber-optic communications were developed in the 1960s, which NASA used for the television cameras sent to the moon. In 1970, Corning Glass […]