• Sweets on the Green

    A Decade of Decadent Desserts By Andra Moss How is your naughty versus nice rating? Those needing to influence Santa with an especially impressive treat should grab their stockings and head to the Norfolk Historical Society (NHS) for the 10th Annual Cake Auction on Saturday, Dec. 7.     Now a Norfolk holiday tradition, the event was […]

  • Artist Tom Burr Brings His Torrington Project to an End

    Performances celebrate studio closing By Stephen Melville Norfolk resident and artist Tom Burr organized a day of performances and exhibition at his studio in Torrington on Oct. 26, marking an end to what he has called “The Torrington Project.” For the past three and a half years, Burr has rented a vast—15,000 square foot—former industrial […]

  • New Meanings for a Monument

    Light Shines on the Memorial Green By Joe Kelly On Monday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day, a crowd of about 100 gathered for the rededication of Norfolk’s World War 1 memorial, artfully restored under the auspices of the Norfolk Community Association. It was sunny. Temperatures in the low ‘60’s. Another day of no rain. Everyone talked […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1920s postcard shows Memorial Green just after the War Memorial, designed by Alfredo Taylor, was built. It was Taylor’s wife Minna who first proposed that a memorial “heroes grove” be planted on the small lot of land known as the Triangle opposite the Catholic Church. The lot had been left empty with the demolition […]

  • Restored war memorial to be celebrated on veterans day

    plaque now honors all who served By Patricia Platt A World War I monument, designed by Alfredo Taylor and erected on Norfolk’s Memorial Green in 1921, bears the inscription, “for those who gave and those who offered their lives for liberty, the people of Norfolk have built this monument and crowned it with the Liberty […]

  • NLT Tail Ablaze with Runners

    More than 120 runners enjoyed perfect fall weather as they wound their way through picturesque Barbour Woods in the 11th Annual Norfolk Land Trust Trail Race. Some chose to add a challenging loop over Haystack Mountain, while the half-marathoners just kept moving on up—topping out at over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. *photo by June […]

  • Can you spot the Real Curler?

    There was movie magic ice to be made, and the pros of the Norfolk Curling Club were the first to get the call. In October, NCC’s Jon Barbagallo, Lou Barbagallo, Rachel Barbagallo, Mark Walsh, Harvey Chalmers and Phill West were hired by a production company to make curling ice at a Rhode Island hockey rink […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This 1917 photograph is a timely reminder of the long struggle fought by many dedicated women for basic civil liberties, including the right to own property, hold public office, sit on juries, participate in public assemblies and vote. The group of 25 suffragists—20 women and five men—gathered on the porch following their meeting with Congressman […]

  • The chicken who wanted to be a star and other tales from a norfolk movie set

    By Andra Moss Secrets and small towns don’t often pair well, and Norfolk is a small town. Yet, for eight weeks this summer, a crew of nearly 100 people quietly transformed Tim and Paula Webster’s 1908 Norfolk farmhouse into a film set for a feature-length production, all the while staying under the local radar.  It […]

  • 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 […]

Articles

Norfolk’s March Weather   

Another Cold Month, but Springtime Is Near By Russell Russ This winter and early spring continued to be cold, very much like last year. The big weather related news this March was the unprecedented water line and sewer line freeze-ups that occurred all over Norfolk and in surrounding towns. The depth of the frost was […]

The Cafe at the Top of Connecticut

By Richard Kessin Photographs by Bruce Frisch I take visitors from the city on walks through Barbour Woods or up Haystack until they are proud of their wilderness adventures and very hungry.  “Can you get lunch around here?” they ask skeptically. “Trust me,” I say as I walk with them to Station Place Café and […]

Glass Is Full for Cookbook Award Winners

Local cookbook authors Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough have a lot to celebrate, as their 2014 book “Vegetarian Dinner Parties” was nominated for three major awards in the two main U.S. cookbook competitions. The book won the People’s Choice Award and was a finalist in the Health and Special Diet category at the International Association […]

Botelle Beat

By Principal Matt O’Connell On April 10, Botelle was jumping to the beat of great music for a great cause. Our PE teacher Mr. Anderson organized a Jump Rope-A-Thon to benefit the American Heart Association.  Our staff and parent volunteers helped run the jump rope stations—and and parent volunteers provided healthy snacks of cut-up fruit. […]

Joel Webster, Norfolk’s Olympic Wrestling Hopeful

By Christopher Sinclair Since Norfolk’s earliest days, the people who live here have possessed both mental and physical fortitude, and are not quick to shy away from hard work. Joel Webster, native Norfolkian, has displayed an exceptional degree of grit and determination that would make any Norfolk resident proud, in the pursuit of his lifelong […]

Where the Arts and Nature Meet

By Lindsey Rotolo The new town map was completed in early April, through the hard work of the map committee — Sue Frish, Pete Anderson, Jim Nelson, Richard Byrne, Bella Erder and Hans Carlson. The map will be widely distributed by the second week of May. Berkshire Brochures will handle the distribution, ensuring the map’s […]

Renewal of Resident Trooper Contract Comes Up for Town Vote

Cost Will Depend on Results of Legislative Session By Wiley Wood Voters will face a choice at Norfolk’s town meeting on May 11 whether to renew the resident trooper contract for another two years. Under Governor Malloy’s proposed budget, the state will no longer subsidize 30 percent of the cost as in past years. If […]

Norfolk Hair Station Hits the Rails in Station Place

Eagerly awaited new hair salon opens this month By Colleen Gundlach The light that went out on Station Place last December at the closing of Great Impressions hair salon is being rekindled. Less than five months after Tammi Pavano closed her business next to the former Corner Store, a new owner has filled the empty […]

Regionalization Plan Update

State Board of Education Agrees to Recommend a 10-Year Waiver By Ruth Melville The plan to create a new regional school district for Norfolk and Colebrook got over a major obstacle on the road to referendum when the State Board of Education, rejecting the recommendation of a subcommittee, agreed to support the Regional School Study Committee’s […]

Board of Finance Aims at Tax Decrease

Town Budget Will Wait on State Decisions By Wiley Wood At a budget meeting of Norfolk’s Board of Finance, Chairman Michael Sconyers reviewed the town’s spending projections for 2015-2016, snipping away a few thousand here and a few thousand there, in the end reducing the selectmen’s proposal by $70,000. “I’m desperate to do a tax […]

Foundation for Norfolk Living Gets Big Affordable Housing Grant

New Units May Be Ready Next Spring By Nina Ritson The Foundation for Norfolk Living has been working and planning for several years to secure space in which to provide affordable housing in Norfolk.  On March 26, their efforts received a huge boost when Governor Malloy and the Connecticut Department of Housing (DOH) announced funding […]

Drones Over Norfolk, at Work and at Play

By Wiley Wood You can’t just fly one straight out of the box, says drone hobbyist Christopher Little, you have to expect to crash a few times when you start out. But the technology to send a guided, camera-carrying drone into the airspace above your backyard is firmly within reach of the civilian consumer. Little, […]