• Norfolk Crowds Return to New Farmers Market

    By Andra Moss The crowd was large, loud and loving it at July’s Northwest Farm to Fork farmers market, held under the pavilion at Norbrook Farm Brewery. “We were very pleased with the turnout, with approximately 230 customers coming through and 16 food and farm vendors,” says Lisa Auclair, a co-founder, with Devin Grosso and […]

  • Friday Night on the Green Celebrates America’s 250th

    July 3 was a picture-perfect night for the community-wide event cel-ebrating America’s Independence. Following a quick parade, picnickers enjoyed burgers and ice cream while judges dug into the entries in the pie baking contest. First Selectman Hen-ry Tirrell moved seamlessly from his welcome speech to the dunk tank, and a few folks, like Pete Sanders […]

  • NORFOLK REMEMBERS Laurene Mary Wallace

    Laurene Mary Wallace, 77, of Colebrook passed peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Friday, July 10, 2026. Laurene was born on April 28, 1949, in Bridgeport, the last of four children born to the late Lawrence and Irene (Misencik) Firmender of Stratford. A retired registered nurse, Laurene’s career in nursing and cardiac rehabilitation […]

  • Norfolk Remembers Sally Sterling Ellis Quale

    Sally Sterling Ellis Quale, of Norfolk and St. Petersburg, Fla., formerly of Bronxville, N.Y., died unexpectedly of heart failure on July 7 at the age of 87. Sally will be remembered for her deep commitment to her family and communities and for her warmth, kindness, intelligence, creativity … and, of course, for her beautiful smile […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This charming house, still standing on the west side of Litchfield Rd., was built in 1905 for Richmond Paine, the newly appointed conductor of the Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU). Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel engaged the architect Ehrick Rossiter to design the house for Paine as well as the Music Shed for performances by […]

  • Norfolk’s Newest Neighborhood Puts Down Roots

    Haystack Woods lauded as a “model for the state” By Joe Kelly Norfolk’s newest neighborhood, the Haystack Woods affordable housing development, has officially come to life. A year ago, the 39-acre location—a former gravel pit off Old Colony Road—was little more than a muddy building site. Now construction of the 10, two- and three-bedroom homes […]

  • Winsted Church Auctions Tiffany Window for $1.25 Million

    Sale highlights women’s role in Tiffany designs By Joe Kelly When medieval architects found ways to build taller cathedrals, the techniques they developed also made possible the enormous stained-glass windows that we so enjoy today, such as at Chartres and Sainte-Chapelle in France and Canterbury Cathedral in England. American-made stained glass is more recent, dating […]

  • A Revolutionary Year

    1776 Norfolk explored in summer exhibition By Andra Moss Communities across the country are looking back with wonder at 1776, the year that 13 British colonies initiated a revolution that, against astonishing odds, led to the birth of an independent republic. In Norfolk, two curators have combed the Norfolk Historical Society’s (NHS) collection for colonial-era […]

  • SUMMER MUSIC: Familiar Quartets, New Composers at Yale Chamber Festival

    By Patricia Platt The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, running from July 3 until Aug. 22, will present an exciting season of classical, innovative and international music. This summer, the Brentano Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Ying Quartet and the Horszowski Trio are among those who will perform during weekend concerts and serve as artist-in-residence mentors to the […]

  • Botelle Students Move Up

    By Avice Meehan Four sixth graders bid farewell to Botelle Elementary School at a laughter-filled, but occasionally serious, ceremony on June 16 that was attended by family, friends and town officials. First Selectmen Henry Tirrell, a Botelle graduate whose mother and aunt taught at the school for many years, reminded the students that they would […]

  • Norfolk Rail-Trail Project Pedals Forward

    By Jude Mead After more than a decade of planning, permiting and redesign work, Norfolk’s long-await-ed Rails-to-Trails initiative has reached a major milestone, bringing the community closer to the creation of a new multi-use recreational trail along a historic railroad corridor. The project is the North Brook Trail, a planned three-quarter-mile ADA-accessi-ble pathway that will […]

  • LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Budgets, Beetles, Nips and More

    By Avice Meehan State Rep. Maria Horn came prepared to share details about the Connecticut budget (she is co-chair of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee) and the progress that has been made toward paying down the state’s unfunded pension liability, increasing the rainy day fund (now up to $18 billion) and allocating more state funds […]

Articles

How Crowdsourcing by the People is Putting History Online

Text By Kelly Kandra HughesPhotos Courtesy of the Library of Congress Betsy Garside, a resident of New Mexico with deep family roots in Norfolk, attended many of the Norfolk Library online events throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. She found them “a way to go somewhere fun,” whether it was an authors talk, a Friday afternoon chat […]

The Poetry of Sarah Anderson: A Book Launch Celebration

Text By Andra MossPhoto by Babs Perkins The old red barn on Colebrook Road was an ideal setting for the reading by Sarah Alcott Anderson from her first published book of poetry, “We Hold On To What We Can” (Loom Press). On an early August afternoon, the large crowd of invited guests, distributed in folding […]

Authors, Audiences to Reconnect at Haystack Book Festival

by Jude Mead Have your Covid-19 proof of vaccination ready because you won’t want to miss the lineup of authors at this year’s Haystack Book Festival in Norfolk. The festival was canceled last year because of the pandemic. This year it will follow the state and CDC guidelines and will be live in-person, with proof […]

Creating Music from Start to Finish

By David Beers Andrew Thomson distinctly remembers a pivotal moment in his life: it was the 90s and he was singing in the Chorus Angelicus children’s choir at the Norfolk Music Shed. Also onstage were professional adult instrumentalists accompanying the choir.  Thomson was awed by their musicality and got his first glimpse of his future […]

Artist’s Workshop Coming to Town

By Jude Mead When Hilary VanWright sees an opportunity that will benefit her community, she goes after it. That is exactly what happened when she learned about a grant from the Artist Fellowship Program. Fellowship awards provide recognition and funding support for Connecticut artists and are highly competitive. VanWright, however, was confident in her idea […]

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. […]