• 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 […]

  • 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, […]

Articles

Local Foundation Helps Area Children

Funds Available for Summer Camp Tuition By Barbara Perkins Just as there has always been a certain amount of privilege in Norfolk, there has also been a feeling that the privilege should be spread around. When Ken and Dottie Satherlie closed The Laurel School in 1985, they started a foundation dedicated to the belief that […]

For Now The Prevailing Winds Have Died Down

Some renewable energy projects take a hit By Veronica Burns A recent defeat in the U.S. Senate of a proposal to extend the Production Tax Credit for renewable energy projects has taken some wind out of the sails of the energy industry. The proposal was in the form of an amendment attached to the approved […]

Norfolk’s Ranking Takes a Nose Dive

Downgraded to ninth place by Connecticut Magazine By Lloyd Garrison Over the past decade, Connecticut Magazine has placed Norfolk among the state’s top five Best Small Towns Under 3,500, and Norfolk has been named number one twice in a row. Coming in to 2012, it looked like Norfolk was still on a roll. A total […]

Author Wally Lamb to Discuss His Writings

By Janet Gokay  “I’ve been told many times by readers that, after they’ve finished a novel of mine, they catch themselves wondering about how the characters are doing now, as if these people lived and breathed in the actual world. There’s no better validation than that,” comments Connecticut author Wally Lamb. “Writing novels is, in […]

Curtains Up for the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival’s 2012 season

A gala dinner, ice cream social and music in between Summer is almost upon us and once again music will pour forth from the Shed,  located on Yale University’s Summer School of Music campus in Norfolk. On Saturday, June 16, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival will commence its 71st season. A gala evening  will launch […]

This property is on Mountain Road, known as Robin Hill, recently sold at a record price for Norfolk, boosting hopes for an upswing in the housing market.

Housing Market On The Mend

Record price for Robin Hill spurs hope for turnaround By Lloyd Garrison With the warm winter and early spring, Norfolk home listings, long frozen in place have suddenly begun to thaw, and one of them, the estate on Mountain Road known as Robin Hill, has just sold for a record $3,950,000. The price, brokered by […]

Old Perceptions, Enhanced Recollections

Robin Yuran’s poems come alive at Norfolk Library By Joel Howard Poet Robin Yuran does not simply live on forested land in north Norfolk, rather she and her family live “in a nut-brown house at the edge of the woods.” It is through such vivid selection and placement of words that her poems seem infused […]

Curling Club Shaping A Comeback Strategy

Members refining plans for fund raising and design of a new facility By Lloyd Garrison There are no easy answers to two key questions in the wake of the vandalism and fire that destroyed the Norfolk Curling Club in December. The first question is how and when the club will be restored. The second is […]

Church Rejects A Tempting Offer

Members decline lucrative bid to build wireless antenna in steeple By Joel Howard Church steeples are prime real estate for companies like Message Center Management (MCM), a firm that leases antenna space to cellular service providers like ATT and Verizon. Eyeing such expanded coverage, MCM approached Congregational Church of Christ trustees 18 months ago in […]

Joel Howard Joins Norfolk Now as Editor

Wrote ad copy for the likes of Verizon and American Express By Lloyd Garrison Joel Howard almost perfectly personifies the old adage that in the heart of every ad agency copy writer there is a frustrated novelist just waiting to be unleashed. Retired from advertising and now living in Norfolk, Howard already has several plastic […]

Norfolk’s Board of Ed Debates Merger and Expansion Issues

Absorbing Colebrook students still under consideration By  Josh DeCerbo Norfolk’s Board of Education is weighing several issues affecting the future of Botelle School, including merger options with Colebrook. Several years ago, the leadership of both towns supported a study of the costs and benefits of a merger. The matter was dropped once the regional school […]

Foundation for Norfolk Living Switching Gears

Group is now eyeing existing properties for affordable housing By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo The Foundation for Norfolk Living’s mission “to create opportunities for housing in Norfolk that are affordable to a diverse community including people and families of modest means” may be realized sooner than expected. The Foundation’s Old Colony Road project,  a low-maintenance, environmentally […]