• 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

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 […]

Winter Mead Publishes His First Book

Investing in the Future of Technology Text By Colleen GundlachPhoto By Savage Frieze Growing up in Norfolk, Winter Mead was an outdoors person with an interest in running, biking and skiing. Today he teaches entrepreneurs how to build valuable businesses from the ground up. His new book, “How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund: The […]

Community Association Anticipates a Season of Replanting

By Mattie Vandiver The snow and ice have melted, and like everyone else in town, the Community Association (CA) is planning for the warmer weather to come. First off for the CA is its annual cleanup day, held on the Saturday following Earth Day. Last year, because of Covid, there was a cleanup month instead, […]

Cold Nights and Warmer Days Herald a New Maple Syrup Season

Text by Jude MeadPhoto by Danesha Mead Maple syrup season is here again. This year will be a little different, with Covid-19 guidelines that still need to be followed. In years past, visitors were welcomed to the sugar houses. This year there will be more safety measures in place and visitors discouraged from coming. But […]

Experiencing the Many Stories of Village Life in Rwanda

Serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer Text and Photos by Kerong Kelly I received my Peace Corps assignment in the spring of 2018. The application, interviews and security clearances had dragged on for months, but now here it was: I would be a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda focusing on child and maternal health. I […]

Norfolk Farmers Market to Return this Summer

Text by Doug McDevittPhoto by Bruce Frisch Imagine a summer morning, leaves on the trees gently rustling as a warm, soft breeze brushes your face and the heat of the sun spreads across your shoulders. The sounds of lively banter and laughter reach your ears, and music lifts your spirit as you find yourself humming […]

Learning in the Time of Covid

Botelle staff and students have successfully readjusted to in-person classes Text by Virginia Coleman-PriscoPhoto by Chris Snyder Covid-19 isn’t the first pandemic to have an impact on public education in the United States. In the 20th century, Spanish flu, tuberculosis and polio outbreaks caused public schools to shift instructional methods to either “open air” or […]

Phishing and Vishing and SMishing, Oh My!

NIB warns against online scams by Kelly Kandra Hughes Catie Dougan chuckles as she tells the story of when someone tried to scam her by email phishing. “A couple of years ago, I received an email from someone by the name of Tom McGowan. He asked me to send money via wire out of state […]