In 1770, only eight years after Norwich was founded, the infant twin Slafter boys, Asahel and Asaph, died and were buried in the Waterman Hill Cemetery. These were the first documented burials in Norwich, and this is the oldest cemetery in town. Lying north of the village just before the Pompanoosuc River and west up on Hemlock Road, the Waterman Hill Cemetery was a final resting place for many of Norwich’s early settlers, and a stroll over the grounds and an examination of the gravestones offer historical sketches into the challenges faced by the first residents. Diseases that are rarely mentioned today were fatal, infant deaths were common, and few lived to a golden age.… Read More

The Norwich Times covers for the partial years of 1997 and 2022 can be found on the cover of this current issue, and the 96 issues in between are highlighted here.

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You didn’t ask for it, but you’re getting it anyway: a resident’s top 25 reasons Norwich is a good spot to be in 2022.

1. Quick: when’s the last time you locked your house?

2. Fifty-degree temperature swings in 24 hours. Better to love it than hate it!

3. The publicly funded portion of the library’s budget passed with more than 90% of the vote last March. What a nice way to answer the question, “Are we for or against reading?” 

4. Admit it: during the Norwich Fair, you kind of feel like you, personally, are part of hosting a party in your town.… Read More

I’m not going to say it because it’s just too cliché. However, it does feel like yesterday when Wendy McMillan Kenyon and I were working on the Quechee Times together – she was my graphic designer at the time – and we began toying with the idea of starting a Norwich publication modeled after the Quechee Times. Her daughter, Maddy, was just three years old and my older daughter, Dewey, was just 18 months and we both worked with and around our daughters by our sides many a day or night!

Upper Valley residents in search of a physical challenge paired with a meaningful cause have, for years, relied on The Prouty to fulfill both. As we approach another Prouty event, the 41st annual, area roads are busy hosting cyclists training for Prouty weekend. Norwich is always well represented with Prouty participants cycling, walking, golfing, rowing to raise money for cancer research.

Norwich resident Stuart Richards is one example of a longtime Prouty veteran who has logged many tough miles on his bike raising money for the annual event.

“My participation goes back to 1986 when I rode my first Prouty Century Ride (the 100-mile course). … Read More

About five months ago, Paul Foster of Norwich received a shocking text. Marcel Jean, director and manager of the Tysea Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti, was reaching out to Foster to let him know the funding the orphanage relied on to operate, was suddenly about to disappear. Their main benefactor was pulling out and the orphanage would have to close.

Foster had met Jean five years prior and gotten involved in Tysea by helping with educational costs; now Jean was reaching out to see if Foster might be able to assist him raise the funds to save the orphanage. Foster was immediately ready to help prevent the closing of the orphanage: “I couldn’t let that happen, I wouldn’t let that happen,” he said. … Read More

Psyanky, or egg-writing, was the last lesson Shannon Wallis of Norwich taught as an elementary school teacher some 23 years ago, though she did not know it at the time. Teaching art to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Hanover Street School and Seminary Hill in 1999, Wallis was ordered on bed rest while pregnant: “I took a leave of absence and then didn’t go back to teaching art, so that was the last unit I taught,” she said.

A coincidence that now feels fateful, Wallis is a full-time pysanky artist creating intricate designs on delicate eggs. Wallis first learned this Ukrainian artform while training to become an elementary school teacher about 30 years ago.… Read More

On a typical day at the Norwich Public Library, Lucinda Walker might find herself checking in with the library staff, responding to patrons’ questions about how their phones work, listening to a student talk about her day at school, loaning out an energy meter, managing the library budget, buying the latest books and media for the library collection, greeting enthusiastic library volunteers, and considering an innovative idea for a new library activity from a patron. And we used to think a library was only about books!

Celebrating 20 years as the Director of the library, what Lucinda has come to appreciate most are the positive relationships with the people who come to the library not only to check out books and media, do research, or play in the backyard, but to enjoy the sense of community Lucinda and her team have created for Norwich residents and guests.… Read More

Every individual matters.

Every individual has a role to play.

Every individual makes a difference.

~ Jane Goodall

It’s unusual for a small Vermont town like Norwich to be featured on the CBS national news because of its citizens’ goodwill. But that’s exactly what happened in early December when Dan & Whit’s general store owner Dan Fraser put out a plea for help due to the statewide worker shortage. Every position needed to be filled or the store would close. That’s when community members stepped forward and volunteered to stock the shelves and run the registers. Remarkable as the turnout has been, and it has been an amazing event, this is far from the first time the people of Norwich, sometimes as a group, sometimes as individuals, have stepped forward.… Read More

“How can we help?” Reverend Jan Hutslar and the folks at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley in Norwich were able to answer this question by hosting the retrofitted RV that Simon Dennis, director of the Center for Transformation Practice (CTP) in Hartford, and his team put together to house two previously un-housed persons. 

The RV has been outfitted into two apartments that can each house a person comfortably with the necessary amenities for most activities of daily life. The church first became involved in the project after Dennis sent a letter to the congregation gauging their interest in hosting the RV home.… Read More