• 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

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 […]