• 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

You Got Mail in the Icebox

By Virginia Coleman-PriscoPhoto by Marinell Crippen Botelle’s very own Rex Crippen, age 9, has advanced to the nationals in this year’s Invention Convention, after qualifying at the local and state levels. The Invention Convention is an opportunity for students to practice applying science and engineering skills, especially critical thinking and problem-solving. Crippen invented a product […]

Eating From the Devil’s Buffet

Spring foraging expedition takes near-fatal turn By Wiley Wood A local family’s foraging expedition in late April for ramps, a kind of wild onion, ended with all three members spending the night in the intensive care unit at Sharon Hospital. It was late in the afternoon, and Bridget Taylor, intrigued by an article on foraging […]

Connecting to the Internet in Norfolk – Part 1

Text and Photo by David Beers You call home. You join a zoom meeting for work. You text your son. You skype your mom. You google a recipe. You log on to the work computer. You play Call of Duty with your cousin in Missouri. You check Facebook. You post to Instagram. The possibilities to […]

Garden in a Jar

By Susannah Wood A cold spring and pandemic woes have had many of us hankering for fresh greens. Of course, we’ve been cutting down on trips to the store, and so it was a lucky day when I noticed an unopened package of organic sprouting seeds on our pantry shelves. Since then we have been […]

College Students Roll With Punches During Covid-19

by Kelly Kandra HughesPhoto Courtesy of Bina Barstad When Norfolk resident Ellie Olsen moved into her dorm room at Boston University in September 2019, she felt terrified of the unknown. No one else from her high school had chosen B.U., and she had only met her roommate once before during orientation. Still, she felt ready […]

Purifying Norfolk’s Wastewater

Process described on Sewer District’s Facebook page By Doug McDevitt Too many cups of coffee on a long road trip home, we rush out of the car, fumble with the keys doing a strange wiggle dance and just make it to the lavatory. With our business finished, the commode flushed and hands washed, a great […]

Scout Project Honors Norfolk Veterans

By Wiley Wood On a recent Saturday morning, a group gathered around a headstone lying face down on the sod of the Grantville Cemetery in Norfolk. Some carried clipboards, others flashlights, brushes and putty knives; one carried a bulging ring binder. All were wearing masks. They were part of a task force assembled by John […]

Interview With Matt Riiska

Norfolk First Selectman Matt Riiska talks with Norfolk Now’s Mike Cobb about conducting town business during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Click here for podcast. (If viewing on landing page, click on headline first.)

Working to Keep Vital Supplies on the Grocery Store Shelves

By Doug McDevitt In October of 1929 a national catastrophe occurred when the stock market crashed putting millions of Americans out of work and causing absolute uncertainty about what was to come. For the next three and a half years, Americans struggled to survive. In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected the 32nd president of […]

Voices From the Pandemic: How Norfolk Is Responding to the Crisis

Throughout this issue, you’ll find articles about the coronavirus crisis and the ways that people in Norfolk are responding, whether they are working at patients’ bedsides, keeping grocery store shelves stocked, cooking meals to enliven the family’s day, sewing masks to give to their neighbors or keeping their children safe, happy and productive. But first […]

Many Went Bunny Hunting Through Town over Easter Weekend

Norfolk Bunny Hunt By Dave Beers Photos by Dave Beers This past Easter weekend (April 10-12) there was a bunny hunt in Norfolk. Residences and businesses set up Easter holiday displays both inside and outside as part of a town-wide socially-distant scavenger hunt for all ages. Over 60 addresses were listed on both a check-off […]

Norfolk Resident Wins Award for Student Film

By Allysia RuggieroPhoto by Nicole Villalobos Elias Olsen graduated from Ithaca College this past December, with a degree in documentary studies. His course work was largely focused on film. A short film that he and his fellow students produced, called “Stew,” recently won an award at the Outer Docs Film Festival in Ithaca, N.Y. As […]