• 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

Department of Transportation Proposes New Road Safety Measures

Citizens action group formed to slow traffic through Norfolk   By Wiley Wood Norfolk is a town cut in two by an arterial road. If you walk from the village green to the Norfolk Library or to Station Place—as many residents and Yale Music School students do—you take your life in your hands crossing Route […]

Faces at the Farmers Market

Woven Stars Farm, Food With a Conscience   By Wiley Wood On a typical day, Emerson Martin and Lizzie Galeucia bring pasture-raised eggs, raw honey, oyster mushrooms and heirloom tomatoes to the farmers market in Norfolk. In the fall they will add frozen cuts of lamb and goat. Diversity is part of their plan, and […]

Without a Car in Norfolk? 

Dial-A-Ride is Curb to Curb and Available to Everyone   By David Beers On Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m., a little bus picked me up at my house to take me wherever I wanted to go, whether shopping, dining, medical appointments or any other appointments in northwest Connecticut. The round trip cost was $2.50, regardless […]

Norfolk’s Much-Decorated Fire Engine 90 is Retiring

NVFD to bid farewell to state champion pumper truck   By Sally Quale Engine 90, Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department’s (NVFD) award-winning, 30-year-old pumper truck, is scheduled to be retired and replaced this fall. It has served well as a highly versatile pumper, whose smaller size and four-wheel drive enables it to reach fires at the […]

A Bearded Dragon, a Python and Their Friends Come to Norfolk

The Ted Byers Conservation Lecture Featured Wildlife Rehabilitator   By Jude Mead A rare box turtle, a four-foot long python snake, a colorful painted turtle and a bearded dragon lizard were spotted at Doolittle Lake last month. But not to worry because these reptiles were featured at the annual Ted Byers Conservation Lecture held on […]

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, […]