• 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

Historical Gravestones Offer Hints About Past Lives

Tales from the Old “Buryal Yard”   By Ryan Bachman Walking through an old graveyard can be like stepping back in time. The strange designs and archaic language carved on historic gravestones can tell little known and unusual facts about the history of a community and its residents. Two hundred and sixty years ago this […]

Norfolk NET: A Conversation With the Rev. Erick Olsen

By Kelly Kandra Hughes Norfolk NET (Networking Everyone Together) is a collaborative, grassroots effort to alleviate poverty and strengthen community relationships in Norfolk. One of the lead collaborators, the Rev. Erick Olsen, pastor of the Church of Christ Congregational (UCC), recently agreed to share with Norfolk Now his thoughts on this initiative and his hopes […]

Placing Classical Music Within a Wider Conversation

New Director at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival   By Wiley Wood Melvin Chen, the new director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, talks about music in a distinctly down-to-earth way. “Just like in a relationship,” he says to the young musicians who have performed a Franck piano quintet for him at a public masterclass, […]

Without a Car in Norfolk? From Feet to Bike to eBike

  By David Beers You have probably noticed a biker plodding his way up the steep hill from Winsted in the rain and snow. If you’re like me, you probably felt a pang of pity because of the difficult terrain and weather. Well, let me assure you, this particular biker does not want your pity, […]

Christodora Program Brings City Youth to Study in Great Mountain Forest

Trading Cell Phones for Compasses   By Susan MacEachron Is there a correlation between the density of hay-scented fern and the tick population? How do soil conditions affect the growth of Late Low blueberries? What is the impact of environmental conditions on the red eft, which is the orange, land-dwelling, juvenile stage of the eastern […]

Multidisciplinary Retreat Brings Creative Artists to Norfolk

Courtney Maum’s The Cabins Project   By Ruth Melville Courtney Maum is a writer married to a filmmaker, so perhaps it’s natural for her to think about how artists from different fields can learn from each other. For years, she would go to writing conferences and meet other writers whose stories seemed perfect for filming. […]

Masterclasses Give Audiences a Glimpse Behind the Scenes

  By Leila Javitch One of the highlights of this year’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival is the ongoing series of masterclasses that are free and open to the public on Wednesday evenings. These are an addition to the popular recitals by the music fellows, which take place Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. In a masterclass, […]

Historical Society Commemorates Norfolk’s Role in the Great War

Norfolk Natives “Over There”   By Michael Kelly While the war was raging for three years on the European continent, the United States was determined to stay out of a conflagration between nations nursing centuries-old antipathies and animosities. But a groundswell of nationalistic support fomented by adventurous, upper-class American scions eager to test their mettle […]

New Planters Adorn Station Place

This pole planter in front of the Arcanum Building, with its profusion of purple and lavender petunias, is one of several new planters in town, courtesy of the hard work of the members of the Norfolk Community Association. This year the association added 11 pole planters to Station Place and Route 44, in addition to […]

Consolidation of Roman Catholic Parishes Brings Hope for the Future

Immaculate Conception Church becomes St. Martin of Tours   By Colleen Gundlach On June 29, the Immaculate Conception Church in Norfolk underwent not only a change in name but a change in structure. When Catholic Archbishop Leonard P. Blair announced in May that the number of parishes in the archdiocese would be reduced, the fear […]

Where Are All These Bears Coming From?

A wildlife biologist separates fact from fiction   By Wiley Wood Black bear sightings are underreported in Norfolk. That’s what Town Clerk Linda Perkins thinks, anyway. She is on a campaign to get Norfolk residents to call the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)when they see a bear. “If you look at DEEP’s black […]

Northwest Hills Council of Governments

Collaboration as the Key to Success   By Ruth Melville In Connecticut, as opposed to most states, the primary unit of local government is not the county but the town. This structure gives more autonomy to each of the 169 towns in the state, but it also makes regional cooperation and planning more difficult. To […]