• 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

New Arrest Warrants Issued in Curling Club Arson Case

Defendants charged with tampering with pump station valves By Lloyd Garrison There was supposed to be another hearing last week in Litchfield Superior Court to advance the case of the State vs. Mathew Carey and Kyle Majewski, but nothing went right for the two 19 year olds accused of multiple felonies that led to the […]

Lecture Offered on Conservation of Sandy Brook

An ambitious plan to protect the Sandy Brook watershed, a 17-mile expanse of land that crosses northeastern Norfolk as well as parts of Colebrook, Sandisfield, and other surrounding towns, is being spearheaded by Aton Forest. A broad coalition of land-preservation groups, municipalities, and landowners will be called on to bring this effort, known as the […]

Curling Club Starts to Rebuild

Fundraising Gears Up as Plans for New Curling House Go Out to Builders By Wiley Wood The rubble is gone. A long slab of concrete, painted with targets on either end and lying in a vacant lot on Golf Drive, is all that remains of the Norfolk Curling Club, which was torched by arsonists last […]

Colebrook-Norfolk School Merger Gets a Fresh Look

Joint Study Committee Holds First Meeting By Bob Bumcrot With primary-school enrollments projected to decline and per-student costs expected to rise over the next decade, a study committee has been formed to examine the possibility of a merger between the Norfolk and Colebrook schools. A first public meeting was held on April 10 at the […]

Stopping the Cycle of Abuse Through Communal Effort

Susan B. Anthony Project Serves Northwest Corner Towns By Colleen Gundlach When geese fly, their formation allows each individual member to be pulled along and uplifted by the drafts of air created by the bird flying in front. When a goose is sick or injured, other geese leave the formation to provide assistance. These simple […]

Norfolk Farmers Market Starts Season

Several New Vendors and Many Old Favorites By Wiley Wood There’s always a reason to go to the Norfolk Farmers Market on a Saturday when the sun is shining. It’s a place to walk a dog where it will be admired, to commission a copper weathervane or to buy a crusty loaf of sourdough and […]

Lily Bernstein Wins National Writing Award

Norfolk resident Lily Bernstein, a sixth-grader at Botelle, entered a national essay contest this winter at the urging of her homeroom teacher, Kim DeDominicis. More than 1900 other students from around the country joined the competition, which is sponsored annually by the BIC Corporation. Bernstein won a runner-up prize. For her 200-word essay, she will […]

Robotics Team Travels to International Championship

Northwest Regional’s Gearheads Win Major Award By Joel Howard Winning is as much a journey as it is an end objective, as the Gearheads have learned over the past four months. Just three month ago, Northwest Regional High School’s robotics team was meeting after school almost every day to get their new club organized and […]

Spring Turkey Season in Progress

Hikers on or near state hunting lands should consider that the 2012 Connecticut spring wild turkey season, which started on April 25, continues through May 26. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection advises hunters to avoid the colors red, white, and blue when walking in the turkey woods, as these colors are associated with […]

Dancer and Choreographer Brings Her Love of Movement to Norfolk

Moving to Music By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo In two short years, professionally trained dancer Kristin Mudge has taken Norfolk by storm. Donating her time and energy to a myriad of groups and endeavors in Norfolk and the surrounding area, Mudge’s most recent undertaking was choreographing the Northwestern Regional Seven High School musical, “Chicago.” A member […]

Maple Syrup Season Is Fast Out of the Starting Blocks

Early Preparations Pay Off This Year By Wiley Wood Sap flow in Norfolk’s sugar maples started three to four weeks early this year. Syrup producers who caught the early, unexpected flow had a good season. “We tapped our trees in January and started collecting in early February,” says Jude Mead, of Mead’s Maple Syrup, “the […]

Whitehouse Roof Restoration Underway

Driving through the center of town you have probably noticed the scaffolding and construction materials around Whitehouse across from the Norfolk Green. Workmen will be replacing the roof and restoring masonry around the chimneys and cornices. Construction is expected to continue into September 2012. Whitehouse was home to the Battell family from approximately 1800 until […]