• 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

Fire Department Adds a New Truck to Its Fleet

By Ruth Melville   In January 2015, the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD) presented the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance with a request for $125,000 to buy a new utility truck. The Board of Finance denied the full request, but it did give the NVFD $20,000, and the department chipped in $26,000 […]

Tireless Library Volunteers Work to Document Everyone’s History

Norfolk’s Past and Present in Scrapbooks   By Colleen Gundlach In the nondescript cabinets to the right of the fireplace in the Great Hall of Norfolk Library is tucked one of Norfolk’s unsung treasures. Here reside volumes that trace the folk history of the town, carefully cut, pasted and archived by dedicated volunteers. From birth […]

Isabella Players Showcase Native American History

  It was a cold afternoon, and the roads were snowy, but a good-sized crowd was on hand in Battell Chapel to watch this year’s Isabella Eldridge Club play, written and directed by Jude Mead. On stage were four disparate women, all descendants of great Native American chiefs. Three are great-great-granddaughters—crisply tailored Hahanna (Louise Davis), […]

It’s Only Natural—March 2016

Art, Science and Nature in a Rite of Spring   By Hans M. Carlson Last Sunday’s minus 19 degrees was a record, and I love that kind of cold, so I took a walk in the woods as soon as the sun rose. I came out at the east gate of Great Mountain Forest, and […]

Fresh Crop of EMR’s Joins Norfolk Ambulance

  By Wiley Wood The sign next to the ambulance building on Route 44 reads “Volunteers Needed.” And this winter, the Norfolk Lions Club Ambulance got a fresh influx of volunteers. Eleven people took the latest Emergency Medical Responder’s course, and seven of the newly minted EMR’s are expected to join the ambulance, according to […]

Looking at Fixes for the Regional Economy

Conference brings resource providers and town representatives together   By Stephen Melville We were, Jocelyn Ayer explained as she opened the Northwest Connecticut Development Summit 2016, going to be speed-dating. Seated at tables that ran down both sides of the White Barn at South Farms in Morris, we were more than a hundred selectmen, local […]

Local Youth Group Hosts Conversation on Access to Healthy Foods

State legislators join in voicing concern   By Julie Scharnberg The Norfolk Church of Christ Youth Group is determined to do something about food insecurity and food deserts. On the afternoon of January 31, 2016, the youth group hosted a community conversation at Battell Chapel to gather ideas. Special guests included State Representative Roberta Willis […]

After Paris and Sandisfield, a Novelist Comes to Norfolk

    By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo “It’s like living on a campus,” novelist Courtney Maum says of her new house on the village green. “With the church bells ringing… and being able to walk to the library… it’s pretty great.” The library, and the hidden wet bar in their new home, actually were the greatest […]

Norfolk’s Schoolchildren Learn to Curl

  The school bus pulls up, seven schoolchildren pour out, huddle briefly with their coach, David Beers, in the foyer of the Norfolk Curling Club, then fan out over the ice, broom in hand, gliding over the pebbled surface of the curling sheets. This is the Norfolk After School Program in action. The curling class, […]

A Playful Presence in the Woods

The North American River Otter   By Wiley Wood The tracks look dog-like, big pugmarks in the snow coming up from the lake, crossing the ski trail and climbing the bank on the far side. But the coyote, if it is one, is dragging something heavy in its mouth, making a long, shallow dent in […]

EDC Works Behind the Scenes to Restart Corner Store

Operator backs out at the eleventh hour   By Wiley Wood It seemed like a natural. The Corner Store in Norfolk had stood empty for years. Cornwall, a few towns over, had a thriving country store with a genial and energetic owner, but after operating for two years at the intersection of Route 7 and […]

Norfolk Festival Director Will Step Down After 2016 Season

Melvin Chen named new director   By Wiley Wood Paul Hawkshaw, the Yale School of Music professor who has served as director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the Yale Summer School of Music for more than a decade, has confirmed that he will step down after the festival’s 2016 season. Familiar to concertgoers […]