• Sweets on the Green

    A Decade of Decadent Desserts By Andra Moss How is your naughty versus nice rating? Those needing to influence Santa with an especially impressive treat should grab their stockings and head to the Norfolk Historical Society (NHS) for the 10th Annual Cake Auction on Saturday, Dec. 7.     Now a Norfolk holiday tradition, the event was […]

  • Artist Tom Burr Brings His Torrington Project to an End

    Performances celebrate studio closing By Stephen Melville Norfolk resident and artist Tom Burr organized a day of performances and exhibition at his studio in Torrington on Oct. 26, marking an end to what he has called “The Torrington Project.” For the past three and a half years, Burr has rented a vast—15,000 square foot—former industrial […]

  • New Meanings for a Monument

    Light Shines on the Memorial Green By Joe Kelly On Monday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day, a crowd of about 100 gathered for the rededication of Norfolk’s World War 1 memorial, artfully restored under the auspices of the Norfolk Community Association. It was sunny. Temperatures in the low ‘60’s. Another day of no rain. Everyone talked […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1920s postcard shows Memorial Green just after the War Memorial, designed by Alfredo Taylor, was built. It was Taylor’s wife Minna who first proposed that a memorial “heroes grove” be planted on the small lot of land known as the Triangle opposite the Catholic Church. The lot had been left empty with the demolition […]

  • Restored war memorial to be celebrated on veterans day

    plaque now honors all who served By Patricia Platt A World War I monument, designed by Alfredo Taylor and erected on Norfolk’s Memorial Green in 1921, bears the inscription, “for those who gave and those who offered their lives for liberty, the people of Norfolk have built this monument and crowned it with the Liberty […]

  • NLT Tail Ablaze with Runners

    More than 120 runners enjoyed perfect fall weather as they wound their way through picturesque Barbour Woods in the 11th Annual Norfolk Land Trust Trail Race. Some chose to add a challenging loop over Haystack Mountain, while the half-marathoners just kept moving on up—topping out at over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. *photo by June […]

  • Can you spot the Real Curler?

    There was movie magic ice to be made, and the pros of the Norfolk Curling Club were the first to get the call. In October, NCC’s Jon Barbagallo, Lou Barbagallo, Rachel Barbagallo, Mark Walsh, Harvey Chalmers and Phill West were hired by a production company to make curling ice at a Rhode Island hockey rink […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1917 photograph is a timely reminder of the long struggle fought by many dedicated women for basic civil liberties, including the right to own property, hold public office, sit on juries, participate in public assemblies and vote. The group of 25 suffragists—20 women and five men—gathered on the porch following their meeting with Congressman […]

  • 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 […]

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 […]