• 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 […]

  • A Look Into Norfolk’s Past

    Exhibit Explores Pupin’s Haven of Happiness on Westside Road By Patricia Platt The Norfolk Historical Museum graces Norfolk’s village green with the reserve and understated elegance of a New Englander well worth getting to know. Visitors who step inside will find exhibits that tell the stories of the town’s past, often with intriguing ties to […]

  • Norfolk Past and Present

    The Summer Chapel Eases Gracefully Into Its 130 Years By Elizabeth Bailey Ayreslea Rowland Denny began attending services at The Church of the Transfiguration in Norfolk in 1939 on the eve of World War II. A New Yorker, she was a student at the Chapin School in New York City, but her family had been […]

  • Church Steeple Shines Once Again

    Local dignitaries and friends of Norfolk’s Church of Christ Congregational gathered on Saturday, May 25, to formally celebrate the completion of the steeple restoration project. The Rev. Erick Olsen thanked the community for supporting the years-long effort and welcomed everyone to enjoy a splendid cake featuring an image of the steeple.

  • Making the Native… Personal

    Cheryl Heller Builds a Wild Garden in Norfolk By Joe Kelly Gardens are best when they’re personal, argued the late Fred McGourty, who remains Norfolk’s best- known plantsmen. McGourty’s 1989 book, “The Perennial Gardener,” recounts the gardens he and his wife, Mary Ann, created at Hillside, their home near Dennis Hill State Park. Were he […]

  • This Old Norfolk House

    Stevens House By Joe KellyWhen our Puritan forebears arrived on these shores in the early 1600s, they were no doubt surprised todiscover how the traditional thatched roof cottages they knew from back home were no match for thewind and cold of a typical New England winter. But it would have likely surprised them even more […]

  • Can wildlife safely cross Norfolk’s Roads?

    By Shelley Harms Where are animals crossing Norfolk’s roads? Are they making it across? Is it possible to make theircrossings safer? Julia Rogers, Senior Land Protection Manager at the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), helped agroup of interested Norfolk residents explore these questions at a training session sponsored by theNorfolk Land Trust on March 22 at […]

  • Great Mountain Forest’s New Executive Director Returns to His Connecticut Roots

    By David Beers Mike Zarfos started his new position as executive director of Great Mountain Forest (GMF) at the end ofFebruary. It has been a lively time for Zarfos and his family; in addition to moving from Washington,D.C., to Connecticut, they are expecting a baby in April. Zarfos grew up in Deep River, Conn., where […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    In the late 19th century, the arrival of every train at the depot on Station Place was widely anticipated.There were freight trains, milk trains and passenger trains unloading throngs of summer visitors. Theattractive station pictured here was built in 1898, replacing an earlier modest structure. Constructed ofnative granite, it was designed by Hill & Turner, […]

Articles

One Year in, Multiage Classrooms at Botelle Judged a Success

Program will expand next year   By Jude Mead Botelle Elementary School implemented its first multiage classroom this past year, combining the kindergarten and first grade classes. Faced with the prospect of declining enrollment, Principal Lauren Valentino, along with teachers Bea Tirrell and Deb Tallon, revitalized an educational model that dates back centuries to the […]

Husky Meadows Farm: Fresh Produce and Prepared Foods

  By Colleen Gundlach When Steve Archaski was young, he spent many happy hours at the home of his great-aunt and great-uncle on Doolittle Drive. Little did he know that he would eventually own the property and, beyond that, he would be the head baker/chef at nearby Husky Meadows Farm. Many Norfolkians know Husky Meadows […]

Ovenbird: Summer Songster

  By Susannah Wood   There is a singer everyone has heard, Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird, Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again. —Robert Frost   Even if you are not a birder but find yourself anywhere near the Norfolk woods come late April or early May and on into summer, […]

Norfolk Early Learning Center Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary

Learn, Love, Grow   By Ruth Melville On May 5, Kailyn Nadeau and Paige Corey celebrated their fifth year as directors of the Norfolk Early Education Center (NELC), their state-licensed child-care facility for children from as young as six weeks up to 12 years old. For over 10 years, Nadeau and Corey had worked at […]

The Hub, Designed as a Collaborative Center, Holds First Event

Transformed space is open to all   By Chris Sinclair The many stone walls running through the New England landscape may well reflect the entrenched belief that, as Robert Frost put it, “Good fences make good neighbors.” But this New England town has opted for a somewhat different approach in the form of the Norfolk […]

Best in Show: Norfolk

By Janet G. Mead “So you think your dog’s got talent?” was the hook Ellie Crone, 15, and Kendra Link, 14, came up with to lure donors to their benefit for the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, held Saturday, May 26, at Botelle School—and it worked! More than 60 people and 20 dogs were in […]

Yale Summer School of Art: A Celebration and a Farewell

  By Ruth Melville This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art, and the 20th year under the directorship of Sam Messer, a professor and former associate dean at the Yale University School of Art. Housed in the Art Barn on the Battell Stoeckel Estate, the summer program is […]

Finding True Southern Barbecue and a Touch of History in Burrville

Out and About   By Colleen Gundlach There are few restaurants in the area that can say they prepare their entire menu fresh daily, and even fewer that start cooking the day’s food at 5:45 a.m. For Lou and Gina Gabriel, however, this is their reality, because developing the deep, rich flavors of barbecue takes […]

Peeping at Spring Leaf-Out

Local observation station is longtime contributor to national network   By Wiley Wood The three spindly lilac bushes growing near the cooperative weather station on Windrow Road don’t look like much, but they are an unusually well-documented trio of plants. Not the common lilac, which is more lushly flowered, they are a clone, Syringa chinensis […]

Taxes Increase Despite Drastic Cuts to Town Programs

Botelle School budget takes major hit   By Wiley Wood Town taxes will rise about 4.5 percent in the coming year, according to Board of Finance Chairman Michael Sconyers, who spoke at the town’s annual budget hearing on April 24. “I really don’t like the budget,” said Sconyers, who explained that a decrease in allocations […]

Norfolk Sewer District Prepares for $4.2 Million in Repairs

Membership will meet to decide course of action   By Wiley Wood A modest brick building beside the Blackberry River going toward Canaan houses Norfolk’s wastewater treatment plant. Bill Hester, the plant’s superintendent, points out a sunken concrete box near the building into which a 12-inch pipe discharges water. Although the influent looks only slightly […]

Wendy Roberts Reclaims the Beauty and Serenity of the Mountain View Inn

  By Colleen Gundlach When Erastus Johnson built his stately Gilded Age home on the knoll just south of Norfolk’s Village Green in 1900, he named it Wildwood. This was a name that stayed with the property through its next owner, H.E. Adriance, a wealthy New York City resident who kept Wildwood as his summer […]