• 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

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 […]

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 […]