• 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

Multiage Classrooms Are Coming to Botelle School

  By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo If public school teachers are often wary of innovation after recent waves of federally mandated programs, that is not the case at Botelle School. Kindergarten teacher Deb Tallon and first-grade teacher Bea Tirrell have enthusiastically embraced plans for the first multiage classrooms in the fall. Tallon and Tirrell will be splitting […]

A Third-Generation North Canaan Dairy Adopts Cutting-Edge Technology

Freund’s Farm is first in state to install robotic milking machines   By Colleen Gundlach Driving through East Canaan, one can’t help noticing the bank of 500 solar panels alongside Route 44. These are impressive, but only a tip of the iceberg of the advanced technology actually at work at Freund’s Farm and the three […]

After Devastating Fire, Lone Oak Campsites Begins Reconstruction

East Canaan’s Brown family has invincible optimism   By Colleen Gundlach “In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.” So said French philosopher Albert Camus, but it could also have been said about the Brown family of East Canaan. Less than a month after a fire completely destroyed their […]

Freshman Lawmaker Brian Ohler Heads to the State Capitol

Republican state representative to focus on state and local issues   By Ruth Melville On cold sunny morning in February, Brian Ohler, state representative for the 64th District, sat down at the Berkshire Country Store to talk with Norfolk Now about his first weeks in office. Ohler describes his first month as “a whirlwind experience.” […]

Thrift Shop in Winsted Gives $3,000 to Norfolk Ambulance

Director asks for donations of clothing and household items   By Wiley Wood The thrift store is behind a modest shop front on a side street in Winsted. The contents are the familiar assortment of men’s and women’s clothing on racks, children’s toys, hardback books, slightly battered sports equipment and delicate knickknacks. On a weekday […]

School Board Proposes Flat Budget as Costs Rise and State Aid Dwindles

Town ponders an increase in property taxes   By Wiley Wood If the town accepts the budget passed by the Board of Education on Feb. 8, it will be the fifth year in a row that the Botelle School has been flat-funded or seen an actual decrease in its funding. The Board of Finance, which […]

A New England Pastor, a Dutch Classicist and a Roman Stoic in One Book

Treasures From the Rare Book Room   By Lucy Mookerjee Plenty of Norfolkians know a rare bird when they see one. But many birders would be hard-pressed to identify the markings of a “rare” book. What makes a rare book rare? It depends—age, scarcity, market value. Whether you’ve spotted it or not, the Norfolk Library […]

View from the Green

Enduring Village Landmark in Limbo   By Michael Kelly Civic enrichment in Norfolk Town is humming right along: what with the library’s compelling new terra cotta roof, the impressive restoration of Alfredo Taylor’s railroad railing and lamps, the reassuring church bells ringing again on the Village Green, the ambitious reimagining of City Meadow, the budding […]

Norfolk Represented in Women’s March on Washington

Residents travel to D.C believing nation’s moral values threatened   By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo At least 20 Norfolkians travelled to Washington, D.C.—by car, bus, train and plane—on January 21 for the Women’s March. Two separate, large groups of Norfolk women were never able to meet up at the march but shared a very similar experience. The first […]

Convenience Store and Deli Opens in Downtown Norfolk

Residents Offer Strong Show of Support   By Wiley Wood It’s not the Corner Store. The musty gray carpet is gone, the cave-like interior, the flat fluorescent lighting. The Berkshire Country Store—bright, cheerful and inviting—is something else. It opened without fanfare in the pre-dawn dusk of January 4. Within minutes, the grill was delivering hot […]

Dogs and Cats and Bears, Oh My!

Lauren Foley is Norfolk’s New Animal Control Officer   By Colleen Gundlach When Norfolk’s longtime animal control officer, Glen Wheeler, passed away last year, his position remained unfilled until Lauren Foley stepped over the line from Canaan to lend a hand. North Canaan’s animal control officer (ACO) since 2013 and Torrington’s assistant ACO, Foley has […]

Affordable Housing Gets State Funds

Construction to start in the spring   By Julie Scharnberg As reported in the March 2016 issue of Norfolk Now, the Foundation for Norfolk Living (FNL) was poised to move ahead with a formal closing in order to access the $2.99 million in state grant funds and anticipated a spring 2016 start date for construction. […]