• 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

Iconic Church Steeple Set for Temporary Removal

Judged unsafe in high winds By Kelly Kandra Hughes On September 8, after its Sunday worship service, the congregation of the United Church of Christ, Congregational voted on whether to remove the church steeple. Engineers had determined that even after recent repairs, the steeple was not guaranteed to be safe during winds greater than 40 […]

A Weekend of Puppets, Marionettes and Stiltwalkers: The Greenwoods Puppet Festival

A busker walks out from behind the puppet stage, ukulele in hand, and sings a brief history of the art of puppetry. There was Punch and Judy, of course, but also Pulcinella, escaped from the commedia dell’arte; Guignol, of the sharp wit and heavy cudgel; Karagöz, the Turkish shadow puppet; and Kaspar and Gretel, originally […]

Is Broadband for the Whole Town in Our Future?

By Andrew Thomson A few weeks ago, I sat at the counter in the Berkshire Country Store drinking my morning coffee and was approached by Norfolk Now to write an article about the initiative to bring a fiber optic connection to every house in town. As a millenial, I have realized that my age has […]

Convenience at Its Best

Berkshire Country Store to Launch “Norfolk Store 24” By Doug McDevitt We all enjoy convenience. While fishing the Housatonic River for many years, one of my convenient stops afterward was at a little corner store in Cornwall where I could enjoy a hot beverage or sandwich. It was warm and quaint inside and finished my […]

New Town Plan Imagines Downtown as ‘Campus’

Takes hard look at parking and pedestrian access By Wiley Wood With little fanfare and to sparse public attention, the Planning and Zoning Commission adopted a new town plan on Sept. 9. The document, which builds on earlier plans and a community input process that started eighteen months ago, is intended to guide growth and […]

Marty the Robot Arrives at Stop & Shop

Technology Report By Jude Mead If you shop at Stop and Shop in Canaan you might encounter Marty, an autonomous robot that roams throughout the store using image technology to notify store employees of any spills, debris or other potential hazards that may impede the safety of the customer. Stefanie Shuman, the communications manager for […]

Discussing the Future of Farming with Presidential Hopeful

Amanda Freund raises awareness of ecological advantage of farming By Colleen Gundlach The future of the farming community, and of northwestern Connecticut farmers in particular, was brought into the national spotlight when Amanda Freund of East Canaan had the opportunity to question a potential Democratic presidential candidate about his thoughts on the matter. Freund, whose […]

New Program to Bring a Little Wild Into Your Life

By Ruth Melville For the past few years, Norfolk resident Angela Luna Grano, a federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator, has been offering presentations on nature and animals for children at local schools and libraries. But recognizing that adults, too, might need a little wildness in their lives, she developed a new program, called “Wild Magic,” that […]

Bibliomania: The Passion for Books and for Collecting Them

New exhibition opening at the Historical Society Museum By Ruth MelvillePhoto, top, of curator Lucy Mookerjee at the Norfolk Historical Society, by Bruce Frisch.In the late 18th century, a popular hobby, especially among English gentlemen, scholars and clergymen, was collecting books. In his 1809 book “Bibliomania; or Book Madness,” the English bibliographer Thomas Dibdin satirized […]

Maria Horn Discusses Education at Norfolk Forum

A statewide cooperative to stabilize special education costs is being considered By Wiley Wood State Representative Maria Horn recently addressed a group of Norfolk residents about education and education funding. The meeting was held at Botelle School on Aug. 1, with about 45 people in attendance. Horn reported that a task force delegated by the […]

Michele Sloane Retiring as Tax Assessor

By Colleen GundlachPhoto by Bruce Frisch An era will come to an end when Norfolk’s long-term and well-respected tax assessor retires next month. Michele Sloane, who also serves as chairman of the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z), recently took some time from organizing her move to Florida to reminisce about her years in Norfolk […]

Eliza Little Lays Out Latest Findings About Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases

By Susannah WoodPhotos by Bruce Frisch On Saturday, Aug. 10, Eliza Little gave the annual Ted Byers lecture at the Doolittle Club in front of a standing-room-only audience. The lectures are free and open to the public. Little, a postdoctoral researcher at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven for the past two years, […]