A Walking Tour of Corning, New York
By Doug Gelbert
()
About this ebook
There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour is ready to explore when you are.
Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.
Erastus Corning never had anything to do with glassmaking and probably never visited the town that bears his name. Corning began his business career in Troy, New York in 1808 at the age of 13 behind the counter of his uncle’s hardware store. In his work as a hardware man Corning was a dealer in all manner of iron products, from nails and stoves to farming equipment and railroad tracks. The Corning hardware store was one of the most significant businesses in the Hudson Valley by the 1830s and morphed into the Rensselaer Iron Works, which, under Corning’s guidance, installed the first Bessemer converter in the United States. Meanwhile, Corning was founding the Albany State Bank and branching into railroads which he would organize into America’s largest corporation, the New York Central. Amidst these interests Corning dabbled in politics, putting in a term as mayor of Albany and doing a stint in the New York state senate.
With his few moments of spare time Corning invested in land speculation in western New York. One place that caught his interest was timberlands along the Chemung River. With the opening of the Chemung Canal in 1833 large mills were sprouting to float logs and finished lumber out of little villages in the region. Corning was at the head of one investor group that gobbled up a village along the canal so the town was named for him. The plan was to build a railroad from the new anthracite coal lands of northeast Pennsylvania and ship it out via the canal.
With the canal and the railroads the village of Corning blossomed as a transportation center. One of the manufacturers who was attracted by the area’s cheap coal and transportation was Amory Houghton who was running the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works in, of course, Brooklyn, New York. When the people of Corning offered to put up $50,000 to his $75,000 Houghton began work on a new glass plant on June 1868 and was producing cut glass by October 22, 1868. The business was now the Corning Glass Works and the community was on its way to being “Crystal City.” Houghton left the business and the company’s new name and retired to his farm in Westchester County in 1870.
There were other industries in the hustling little town - there were firms making iron and bricks and drills and stoves but they would all pale behind the global corporation that became one with the name of the town. The face of that town would change forever in the summer of 1972 when flood waters from Hurricane Agnes wiped away businesses and factories. In the aftermath Corning has reinvented itself as an art town and tourist destination with the Corning Museum of Glass at its heart. Our walking tour will stop in on Corning and the Gaffer District but first we’ll start in a park named for a city engineer a century ago...
Read more from Doug Gelbert
Look Up, San Diego! A Walking Tour of Balboa Park Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Walking Tour of The New Orleans French Quarter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Meadville, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Savannah! A Walking Tour of Savannah, Georgia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Walking Tour of A Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Williamsburg, Virginia Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Walking Tour of Miami Beach, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Tucson, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Tucson, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Aiken, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Pittsburgh's Business District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Georgetown, South Carolina Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Walking Tour of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Tampa, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Long Beach! A Walking Tour of Long Beach, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of St. Augustine, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Beaufort, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Toledo! A Walking Tour of Toledo, Ohio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Boise! A Walking Tour of Boise, Idaho Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of New York City's Upper East Side Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of New York City's Upper West Side Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Look Up, Chicago! A Walking Tour of The Loop (North End) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Gettysburg! A Walking Tour of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Jacksonville, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Phoenix, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Phoenix, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Staunton, Virginia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Charleston! A Walking Tour of Charleston, South Carolina: The Battery Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Walking Tour of New York City's Financial District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Madison! A Walking Tour of Madison, Wisconsin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Look Up, Salem! A Walking Tour of Salem, Oregon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Oakland! A Walking Tour of Oakland, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Walking Tour of Corning, New York
Related ebooks
A Walking Tour of Washington's DuPont Circle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Butte! A Walking Tour of Butte, Montana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Frederick, Maryland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Alexandria, Virginia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Washington's National Mall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of St. Petersburg, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrehistoric Subsistence on the Southern New England Coast: The Records from Narragansett Bay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Charleston Museum: America's First Museum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Fairfax, Virginia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPorches of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore: An Illustrated History of Railway Stations in Canada Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHermitage Amsterdam - Highlights from the Hermitage Museum St Petersburg: Amsterdam Museum eBooks, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLet's Go Rome, Venice & Florence: The Student Travel Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLockport, Illinois:: The Old Canal Town Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSacramento on the Air: How the McClatchy Family Revolutionized West Coast Broadcasting Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWeaving Alliances with Other Women: Chitimacha Indian Work in the New South Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thacher School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorfu: History - Sightseeing - Museums - Nature - Maps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCulinary History of Montgomery County, Maryland, A Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPortland Rose Festival Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Silver Chief: Lord Selkirk and the Scottish Pioneers of Belfast, Baldoon and Red River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of New Orleans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wardian Case: How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tea and Horsepower: How the horse built the beverage industry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWestern American Rural Cathedrals: Barns, Silos and Cabins Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Thief Taker: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History For You
America is the True Old World, Volume II: The Promised Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Hidden Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"America is the True Old World" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Roland S. Martin's White Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Secrets of the Freemasons: The Truth Behind the World's Most Mysterious Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southern Cunning: Folkloric Witchcraft In The American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win | Summary & Key Takeaways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of the Trapp Family Singers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of the American People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything American History Book: People, Places, and Events That Shaped Our Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Profiles in Courage: Deluxe Modern Classic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Constitution of the United States of America: 1787 (Annotated) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for A Walking Tour of Corning, New York
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Walking Tour of Corning, New York - Doug Gelbert
A Walking Tour of Corning, New York
a walking tour in the Look Up, America series from walkthetown.com
by Doug Gelbert
published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 by Cruden Bay Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Erastus Corning never had anything to do with glassmaking and probably never visited the town that bears his name. Corning began his business career in Troy, New York in 1808 at the age of 13 behind the counter of his uncle’s hardware store. In his work as a hardware man Corning was a dealer in all manner of iron products, from nails and stoves to farming equipment and railroad tracks. The Corning hardware store was one of the most significant businesses in the Hudson Valley by the 1830s and morphed into the Rensselaer Iron Works, which, under Corning’s guidance, installed the first Bessemer converter in the United States. Meanwhile, Corning was founding the Albany State Bank and branching into railroads which he