• 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

Wide Range of Health Services Available to Norfolk Residents—With or Without Coverage

Flu clinic to be held Oct. 17   By Ruth Melville In addition to the regular items in the town budget—road repair, school funding, the fire department, pensions—the Town of Norfolk also provides funds to outside organizations that provide services to the town. One of these organizations is Foothills Visiting Nurse & Home Care (commonly […]

Sharon Hospital Announces Intention to Close Its Birthing Suites

Local opposition forms “Save Sharon Hospital” group   By Stephen Melville In July of 2017 the state of Connecticut officially approved the sale of Sharon Hospital to Health Quest Systems, returning the hospital to nonprofit status after 15 years as part of the for-profit Essent Healthcare of Connecticut. The purchase was supported by a $3 […]

NHCOG Releases Interactive Regional Northwest Connecticut Trail Map

A New Unified 21-Town Resource   By Billy Gridley As Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” A new mapping resource in the Northwest Corner has the potential to make all the difference. It already provides basic information […]

Magnificent Monarch Butterflies Making a Slow Comeback

  By Jude Mead A memorable part of my childhood was spotting a monarch butterfly in late summer. The monarch is one of nature’s most spectacular species with its large size and recognizable bright orange and black markings. Though once common in most gardens, today the monarch has become a rare sighting. According to Jane […]

Buddy Program at Regional 7 Helps Incoming Students Feel Welcome

  By Charlotte McDevitt Moving can be hard, especially for kids moving to a different school, with new peers and teachers. Last year, Northwestern Regional 7 started a program to make the incoming seventh graders’ transitions a little easier. The program is called WEB, which stands for Where Everybody Belongs. WEB leaders are chosen from […]

Author Caitlin Macy Considers New Novel

Filling the creative well in Norfolk   By Colleen Gundlach When a child becomes a voracious reader early on and knows from her formative years that she wants to be a writer, chances are her drive will enable her to achieve that goal. Such is the case with Norfolk resident Caitlin Macy, author of three […]

Authors Gather in Norfolk for October Book Festival

A weekend of public conversations planned   By Tom Hodgkin Stephen Melville knows when inspiration hit. He was in Wales, attending the Hay Festival, a 10-day arts and literature gathering, when he thought, “Why not? Why not Norfolk?” Like Norfolk, Hay-on-Wye was just a quiet country town until 1988, when the local literary community sponsored […]

Rails to Trails Rolls Onward with North Brook Trail

By Sue Frisch   In just three years, Norfolk’s Rails to Trails committee has gone from being a brand-new group to being custodians of a state-approved rail trail—the North Brook trail—along a state-owned segment of Norfolk’s decommissioned railroad bed, which snakes roughly east-west through town. Now the committee is reapplying for the $187,000 state grant […]

Weekend in Norfolk 2018, in Photos

Drop-In Center in Torrington Provides Services for the Homeless

  By Ruth Melville For the past three and a half years, The Gathering Place in Torrington has offered homeless individuals in Litchfield County a safe place to find help and services. It’s not an overnight shelter, but a daytime drop-in center where people can take a shower, do their laundry, find clothing for job […]

Who Are the Library Associates and What Do They Do?

In Support of the Norfolk Library   By Leila Javitch Many people in town probably don’t know who the Library Associates are, or what role they play at the Norfolk Library. Simply put, the Library Associates is a group of volunteers whose goal is to support the work of the library, primarily by sponsoring free […]

Community Survey Reveals Notable Range of Opinions

Broad consensus and sharp disagreement   By Wiley Wood Imagine gathering a large, random group of Norfolkians to discuss what’s good and bad about the town and asking them to suggest one or two things that need doing in the next ten years. A recent community survey did essentially that, but gathered the responses online. […]