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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Co-founder bows out but the play goes on By Colleen Gundlach With the retirement of Rosanna Trestman from its editorial staff, the curtain falls on the opening act of Norfolk Now. The overture began when Lloyd Garrison, a retired foreign correspondent for the New York Times, met a freelance journalist and photographer and together they […]
Plan Combines Water Quality and Recreation By Wiley Wood A plan to turn the five-acre wetland in the center of Norfolk into a storm-water park has been awarded a $500,000 state grant, Governor Dannell P. Malloy’s office announced on September 17. The projected City Meadow will offer paths, boardwalks and benches for strollers, as well […]
Last-Ditch Effort to Save Town Business Falls Short By Ruth Melville On his last day of business, Corner Store owner Fadhl Saleh is visibly upset as he looks around at the empty shelves of his store. “I tried, but it just didn’t work,” he says sadly. “In the end, the stress was terrible, unbearable.” Saleh, […]
State Supreme Court sides with siting council and developer By Veronica Burns FairWindCT, the grassroots opposition group to BNE Energy’s wind turbine project in Colebrook, has just received the decision on its appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court: rejection. The judges voted 6–0 that the New Britain Superior Court was correct in 2012 to dismiss […]
By Wiley Wood A gathering Sunday, September 14 honored Norfolk’s departing superintendent of schools, George Counter. As the guests spilled out over a sunny lawn with drinks in hand, a 70-pound pig was lifted from the bed of coals where it had roasted since dawn and was carved into portions. Counter retired as superintendent of […]
By Wiley Wood In December 2011, Mary Fanette was in her second and final term as president of the Norfolk Curling Club. Already on the boards of several Norfolk nonprofits and serving as the town’s volunteer webmaster, Fanette may have been looking forward to stepping down that coming May. Then the clubhouse burned to the […]
Lace Up Your Hiking Boots By Ruth Melville Local hikers now have two new resources for exploring the Norfolk woods. Both the Norfolk Land Trust and Great Mountain Forest have recently released improved and expanded guides to hiking trails in the Norfolk area. The new, fifth edition of the Land Trust Trail Guide is the […]
Varied books, good background info, open to all By Anne Frieze On a designated Friday approximately once a month, twenty to thirty people gather in a circle ready to discuss a book chosen by Mark Scarbrough, the facilitator of the Norfolk Library Book Group. In its fourth year, it is one of the core ongoing […]
Thomson Canoe Works Still Builds Canoes by Hand By Ruth Melville A summer job at a canoeing camp led Norfolk resident Schuyler Thomson to an unanticipated profession, and he has now been building and repairing handmade wooden canoes for over 30 years. Thomson, who grew up in Woodbury, Conn., graduated from the University of Connecticut […]
On Monday, September 22, the Norfolk Library announced the appointment of Ann Havemeyer as director, starting October 1, 2014. Havemeyer, previously curator of the Library’s special collections, has served as interim director of the library since June, when she replaced Luisa Sabin-Kildiss. Havemeyer holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of several […]
Campaign Hopes to Restore Passenger Rail Service from NYC By Ruth Melville On August 14, a group of about 40 residents of Litchfield County crowded into the Wandering Moose Café in West Cornwall to discuss the possibility of restoring passenger train service from Grand Central Station in New York City to northwest Connecticut and the […]
Local businesses work to raise visibility By Christopher Sinclair While the verdant, ambling hills of the southern Berkshires, rife with clear streams and winding trails, receive the lion’s share of attention from people passing through or visiting, some individuals in the northwest corner are working to bring attention back to a somewhat neglected facet of […]