• 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 […]

  • A Look Into Norfolk’s Past

    Exhibit Explores Pupin’s Haven of Happiness on Westside Road By Patricia Platt The Norfolk Historical Museum graces Norfolk’s village green with the reserve and understated elegance of a New Englander well worth getting to know. Visitors who step inside will find exhibits that tell the stories of the town’s past, often with intriguing ties to […]

  • Norfolk Past and Present

    The Summer Chapel Eases Gracefully Into Its 130 Years By Elizabeth Bailey Ayreslea Rowland Denny began attending services at The Church of the Transfiguration in Norfolk in 1939 on the eve of World War II. A New Yorker, she was a student at the Chapin School in New York City, but her family had been […]

  • Church Steeple Shines Once Again

    Local dignitaries and friends of Norfolk’s Church of Christ Congregational gathered on Saturday, May 25, to formally celebrate the completion of the steeple restoration project. The Rev. Erick Olsen thanked the community for supporting the years-long effort and welcomed everyone to enjoy a splendid cake featuring an image of the steeple.

  • Making the Native… Personal

    Cheryl Heller Builds a Wild Garden in Norfolk By Joe Kelly Gardens are best when they’re personal, argued the late Fred McGourty, who remains Norfolk’s best- known plantsmen. McGourty’s 1989 book, “The Perennial Gardener,” recounts the gardens he and his wife, Mary Ann, created at Hillside, their home near Dennis Hill State Park. Were he […]

  • This Old Norfolk House

    Stevens House By Joe KellyWhen our Puritan forebears arrived on these shores in the early 1600s, they were no doubt surprised todiscover how the traditional thatched roof cottages they knew from back home were no match for thewind and cold of a typical New England winter. But it would have likely surprised them even more […]

  • Can wildlife safely cross Norfolk’s Roads?

    By Shelley Harms Where are animals crossing Norfolk’s roads? Are they making it across? Is it possible to make theircrossings safer? Julia Rogers, Senior Land Protection Manager at the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), helped agroup of interested Norfolk residents explore these questions at a training session sponsored by theNorfolk Land Trust on March 22 at […]

  • Great Mountain Forest’s New Executive Director Returns to His Connecticut Roots

    By David Beers Mike Zarfos started his new position as executive director of Great Mountain Forest (GMF) at the end ofFebruary. It has been a lively time for Zarfos and his family; in addition to moving from Washington,D.C., to Connecticut, they are expecting a baby in April. Zarfos grew up in Deep River, Conn., where […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    In the late 19th century, the arrival of every train at the depot on Station Place was widely anticipated.There were freight trains, milk trains and passenger trains unloading throngs of summer visitors. Theattractive station pictured here was built in 1898, replacing an earlier modest structure. Constructed ofnative granite, it was designed by Hill & Turner, […]

  • Focus on New Firehouse shifts to funding

    Costs likely to rise beyond initial $5 million estimate By Joe Kelly After months of sometimes contentious public hearings, plans for a new Norfolk firehouse are nearing the end of the wetlands/zoning part of the approval process and heading into a decisive new phase: finding the money to pay for it all. The Planning & […]

Articles

Book and Exhibition to Showcase Work of Norfolk Photographers

By Ruth Melville Residents of Norfolk are well aware, thanks to the Norfolk Artists & Friends annual exhibition and shows at the Norfolk Library, Infinity Bistro and Aija, that their town is home to many excellent photographers. A new book featuring the work of 10 local photographers will be published later this year, and this […]

It’s Only Natural

The Legacy of Glacial Lake Norfolk By Hans M. Carlson A couple of months ago I wrote about the low water in Tobey Pond, and how it revealed interesting aspects of the pond’s human history. Today I’m thinking about high water at the pond, and that’s an entirely different story, one which unfolded even before […]

Passport to Connecticut Libraries Program Begins April 1

Your library card opens the world to you through books, audio books, music CDs and DVDs. Now let your library card open the doors of Connecticut libraries by participating in the Passport to Connecticut Libraries Program! To celebrate National Library Week during April, the Connecticut Library Association’s Passport to Connecticut Libraries Program invites you to […]

Religious Compound on West Side Road Changes Hands

Loss of tax-exempt status to be appealed By Wiley Wood The Hutterian Brethren used to be seen along West Side Road, the women in head scarves and long skirts, the children in straw hats, taking their Sunday walk or going to look for berries in the neighboring woods. Then, in the fall of 1999, the Hutterites sold […]

Botelle Seeks a New Principal for Next Year

O’Connell oversaw upgrades to school’s security By Wiley Wood Matthew O’Connell, who became principal of Norfolk’s Botelle School in the summer of 2014, formally presented his letter of resignation to the Board of Education on March 9, and the board accepted it. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Beth Iacobelli, speaking in a recent interview, praised […]

Senator Witkos Hosts Coffee Hour at Haystack Pizza

Criticizes state budget and defends closure of UConn Torrington By Wiley Wood At 10 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning, cars were parked along Route 44 west of town and filled the lot at Haystack Pizza. Inside the restaurant, getting coffee from the counter and helping themselves to doughnuts and Danish pastries, were about two […]

Museum of American Tort Law in Winsted Educates and Entertains

Grand Spring Reopening Planned for April 2 By Ruth Melville Say “tort law” to most people, and their eyes glaze over with boredom, but a new museum in Winsted is determined to change your mind. Far from being a dusty or arcane subject, tort law—which concerns the right of the average citizen to sue for […]

Through The Garden Gate

April, Sacred Geometry By Leslie Watkins As we start thinking of the beautiful new gardens we will create this year, we wonder where will they be located, what size will they be, and what shape? What will they look like? What will they mean? The ancient walled gardens of Persia were designed to be experienced […]

What Lurks Behind Your Bathroom Mirror?

And more importantly, how can you get rid of it? By Susannah Wood Open up the medicine cabinet and there they are: ibuprofen, out-of-date prescriptions for eczema or high blood pressure, opiods left over from your broken ankle, the birth control pills you don’t need because you want to start a family. How do you […]

Case of the (Alleged) Flower Plower

Local men appear before The People’s Court   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo The People’s Court was made famous—as the highlight of Raymond Babbitt’s day—in the 1988 hit movie, “Rain Man.” While Judge Joseph Wapner is long retired, the show is still going strong in its fourth decade of production, and recently aired a case involving Norfolk […]

From Loon Meadow Farm to Barn and Breakfast

Beth and Steve Podhajecki look toward new business in New York state By Kit O’Brien As Spring, 2016 comes to a start, Beth and Steve Podhajecki’s business of horse-drawn carriage services in Norfolk comes to an end. Loon Meadow Farm itself is not at an end, though, as Beth and Steve Podhajecki will be moving […]

People’s Court: The Case of the (Alleged) Flower Plower

Local men appear before The People’s Court By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo The People’s Court was made famous—as the highlight of Raymond Babbitt’s day—in the 1988 hit movie, “Rain Man.” While Judge Joseph Wapner is long retired, the show is still going strong in its fourth decade of production, and recently aired a case involving Norfolk resident […]