Corning is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the

Chemung River The Chemung River ( ) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 in south central New York and northern ...

. The population was 10,551 at the 2020 census. It is named for

Erastus Corning Erastus Corning (December 14, 1794 – April 9, 1872) was an American businessman and politician from Albany, New York. A Democrat, he was most notable for his service as mayor of Albany from 1834 to 1837, in the New York State Senate from 1842 ...

, an Albany

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

and railroad executive who was an investor in the company that developed the community. The city is best known as the headquarters of Fortune 500 company Corning Incorporated, formerly Corning Glass Works, a manufacturer of

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

products for industrial, scientific and technical uses.

Overview

The city of Corning is situated at the western edge of the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of Corning and in the southeast part of Steuben County. It is also home to the

Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...

, which houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections of glass objects from antiquity to the present. The museum houses the Rakow Library, one of the world's major glass research centers. The city's other major cultural attraction is the Rockwell Museum. It contains an important collection of Western American painting and sculpture assembled over the past 40 years by Robert F. and Hertha Rockwell. The city has been cited several times by '' American Style'' magazine as one of the top twenty-five small city arts destinations in the U.S. – most recently in June 2010. Many of the cultural events and historic landmarks in the city are in Corning's Gaffer District. Corning Country Club annually hosted the

Corning Classic The LPGA Corning Classic was an annual golf tournament for professional female golfers on the LPGA Tour. It took place every year from 1979 through 2009 at the Corning Country Club in Corning, New York. It was one of the longest running tourname ...

, a stop on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour, from 1979 to 2009. The city has commercial air service available at Elmira/Corning Regional Airport in the nearby town of Big Flats. Corning is also home to the 2006 New York State Class A high school football champions. In 2006, the city council approved public water fluoridation. In 2007, a petition was launched to ban this practice by local resident Kirk Huttleston which eventually became known as Proposition 1. Proposition 1 passed the ban by a close vote of 1,287 to 1,222, according to unofficial results, leading to a full ban on public water fluoridation in 2008. In 2013, Rand McNally's list of best small towns in America named Corning the "Most Fun" town out of all the list's finalists.

History

The first settlement in the town of Corning was made near the site of the future city in 1796. The community was incorporated as a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

in 1848. Corning was incorporated as a city in 1890. As the

industry developed, Corning became known as the "Crystal City" which was supported by companies such as Hawkes, Sinclair, and Hunt - which produced some of the finest American Brilliant Period

cut glass Cut glass or cut-glass is a technique and a style of decorating glass. For some time the style has often been produced by other techniques such as the use of moulding, but the original technique of cutting glass on an abrasive wheel is still u ...

between 1880 and 1915. The Corning area's first real industry was

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

. The first settlers used the area's river systems to transport logs and finished lumber in fleets downstream to buyers. This gave rise to large mills which helped to develop the area. Rafting of lumber began to wane as timber was depleted. At one time the mills of the Corning area were reputed to be among the biggest in the world. After the lumber was depleted the great mills moved north to new forests. East, across the

from Corning, lies Gibson, the site of a feeder canal for the Chemung Canal system. Some of Corning's early prosperity came from the feeder canal system exposure. Canal cargoes from Corning included soft coal, timber, tobacco, grain, and

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...

. From April 22 to December 11, 1850, the canal season that year, the newspaper reported that 1,116 boats left the port of Corning. Tolls for the year totaled $54,060.39. Among items shipped were 46,572,400 pounds of coal. The canal's best peacetime year was 1854 when 270,978 tons of freight were hauled. The Civil War brought an abnormal amount of business, with a peak of 307,151 tons hauled in one year. After the Civil War, an industrial boom occurred in the region.

Ingersoll Rand Ingersoll Rand is an American multinational company that provides flow creation and industrial products. The company was formed in February 2020 through the spinoff of the industrial segment of Ingersoll-Randplc (now known as Trane Technologies) ...

opened during this period in Painted Post, just north of Corning. Corning became a railroad town in the 1880s, many smaller railroad lines busily weaving webs of tracks connecting the major trunk line to smaller communities. In 1912, the Corning train wreck three miles east of Corning in Gibson left 39 dead. The Jenning's Tavern,

Corning Armory Corning Armory, since 1977 home to the Corning YMCA, is a historic National Guard armory building located at Corning in Steuben County, New York. It was designed by architect William Haugaard. The historic, main block of the armory is a T-shaped ...

, Market Street Historic District, Southside Historic District, World War Memorial Library, and United States Post Office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The flood of 1972

The flood of 1972 was a major event for the area. On June 22, 1972, the storm that had been Hurricane Agnes struck the Southern Tier of New York. The storm combined with a storm system from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

to drop six to eight inches (203 mm) of rain in the

basin. This ultimately overwhelmed the flood control systems of the time, and the Chemung River broke through the dam system on Friday, June 23 at 4:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. the river crested and began to recede. In the Corning area, eighteen people were killed and untold millions of dollars of damage was incurred. An example of these expenses took place in the town of Bath, NY, where a local woman, Lila Marano cooked nearly 100 pizzas out of her home kitchen to accommodate students at the Haverling High School graduation reception at the local Maarit Assembly Hall. The river receded within hours, leaving mud which can still be found in basements of homes and businesses in Corning, and there is a section of the

that indicates on the wall how high the flood waters rose. Corning Clock Tower

Geography

Just upstream from Corning, the

Cohocton River The Cohocton River, sometimes referred to as the Conhocton River, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Chemung River in western New York ...

and the Tioga River merge to form the

which flows through downtown. The river was an important source of

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

in the early history, and is part of the attractiveness of the region today. The river is prone to floods, as rain water runs off quickly from the steep hillsides of the area. In 1972 the remnants of Hurricane Agnes dropped fifteen or more inches of rain in the area within a short time causing extensive flooding. Eighteen people were killed in the immediate Corning-Painted Post area. The entire downtown area was flooded, with severe damage. Flooding is now controlled by a system of dams upstream from Corning. Interstate 86 (the

Southern Tier Expressway New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in Mina and follows the Southern T ...

), New York State Route 17, New York State Route 352, New York State Route 414, and New York State Route 415 are major highways connecting in Corning. County Road 40 leads into the city from the south and County Road 41 from the north.

Interstate 99 Interstate 99 (I-99) is an Interstate Highway in the United States with two segments: one located in central Pennsylvania, and the other in southern New York. The southern terminus of the route is near exit 146 of the Pennsylvania Turn ...

and U.S. Route 15 proceeds southward from Painted Post, west of Corning. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the city has a total area of 3.3 square miles (8.5 km²), of which, 3.1 square miles (8.1 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.4 km²) of it (5.18%) is water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2010, there were 11,183 people in 5,114 households residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 3,626.1 people per square mile (1,346.0/km²). There were 5,519 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 91.8% White, 3.2%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

or African American, 0.3% Native American, 1.8% Asian, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.4% of the population. 4.1% speak a language other than English at home. In 2000, there were 4,996 households, out of which 26.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.6% were non-families. 40.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.89. In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.3% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $32,780, and the median income for a family was $46,674. Males had a median income of $39,805 versus $27,489 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the city was $22,056. About 9.1% of families and 13.0% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 3.8% of those age 65 or over. In 2010, 20.4% were below the poverty line.

Politics

Most local officials are Republicans. The Corning area typically votes Republican, though some outsiders have deemed its constituents "moderate" Republicans. Amo Houghton, the area's long-serving U.S. congressman, was a moderate Republican. While the Town of Corning and surrounding areas are reliably Republican, the City of Corning leans Democratic, voting for both

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

in recent presidential elections.

Federal representatives

Corning is in New York's 23rd congressional district, which is currently represented by Republican Tom Reed.

State representatives

It is in New York's 53rd Senate District, represented by Tom O'Mara, a Republican. Corning is in the 136th Assembly District, represented by Phil Palmesano, also a Republican.

City Mayors

Democrat Joseph Nasser served for many years as Corning's mayor, and the Nasser Civic Center, headquarters of city government, bears his name. In 2005 City Councilman Frank Coccho defeated incumbent Republican mayor Alan Lewis to become the first Democratic mayor since 1953. On November 6, 2007, Tom Reed, the head of the city's Republican Party, was elected to replace Coccho. He completed his two-year term on December 31, 2009. Richard Negri was elected in November 2009 and took office January 1, 2010. Negri's second term expired December 31, 2013. Democrat William Boland is the current mayor of Corning and has served in that capacity since January 2018. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Mayor for four years under Negri.

Government

Since 1995, the City of Corning operates under the Council-Manager form of government, with the City Manager serving as the Chief Executive Officer. The first City Manager was Suzanne Kennedy who served until July 1997. In July 1997, Mark L. Ryckman was appointed as the city's second City Manager. The city council consists of eight members. One member is elected from each of the eight wards.

Education

The Corning-Painted Post (Consists of the City of Corning, and the Village of Painted Post) School District currently has six public elementary schools, one public middle school, and one public high school located in the greater Corning area. In 2010 a referendum was passed that reconfigured the school district's secondary schools; both of the previous middle schools combined and moved into the former "West High School" building while both of the high schools combined at the former "East High School" campus. This reconfiguration / building project was finished by the beginning of the 2014–2015 school year. In addition to the public and private school options, the Corning-Painted Post District also partners with a regional P-Tech school (known as "The Greater Southern Tier STEM Academy") and sends selected students to a grade 9-14 program on their campus. Public elementary schools include: * Hugh W. Gregg * Winfield Street * William E. Severn * Calvin U. Smith * Erwin Valley * Frederick Carder * Lindley-Presho (closed) Public middle schools include: * Corning Free Academy (Before 2014–2015 school year) * Northside Blodgett (Before 2014–2015 school year) * Corning Painted Post Middle School (After 2013–current) Public high schools include: * East High School (Before 2014–2015 school year) * West High School (Before 2014–2015 school year) * High School Learning Center (HSLC) * Corning Painted Post High School (After 2013–current) Private schools in Corning include: * The Alternative School for Math and Science (ASMS) * All Saints Academy (a preK–8 Catholic school) * Corning Christian Academy (a P–12 evangelical Christian school) Higher education in Corning includes: *

Corning Community College Corning Community College is a public community college in Corning, New York. It was initiated in 1957 and moved to its Spencer Hill campus in 1963. This two-year college serves three counties: Steuben, Chemung, and Schuyler. It is one of the ...

Places of interest

Downtown

: a not-for-profit museum dedicated to the art, history, science, and craft of glass. * The Gaffer District is the historic heart of Corning, featuring restored buildings, shopping, dining, and events through the year. ** Market Street is Corning's historic main street, lined with restaurants and shopping. ** The heart of Market Street is Centerway Square, a pedestrianized central square with a covered bandstand and public benches for public concerts and events. A restored historic clock tower serves as Centerway Square's focal point.

Elsewhere in Corning

* Chimney Rocks – A group of tall rock formations that stood east of Corning. The rocks are no longer there but were so named because they were tall and narrow like chimneys. * Bloody Run – An area near Gorton Creek, it was the site of a battle between forces of American generals John Sullivan and

James Clinton Major General James Clinton (August 9, 1736 – September 22, 1812) was an American Revolutionary War officer who, with John Sullivan, led in 1779 the Sullivan Expedition in what is now western New York to attack British-allied Seneca and ...

and Native American villagers. This battle was part of a campaign directly ordered by

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

to break the control of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Indians in the area. It was called Bloody Run for the reports of bloody creek water coming from the battle scene. * Horace D. Page Tunnel – A tunnel connecting the two divided areas of Denison Park, located on the city's South side. It was named after Page, who lost the naming rights to Elmira's Millers (formerly Page's) Pond in a 1912 horse racing bet at Tioga Downs, and was given naming rights to the tunnel as compensation. * Heritage Village of the Southern Finger Lakes – Right in the heart of Corning, the Heritage Village is a Living History museum and the site of the Benjamin Patterson Inn, constructed in 1796 to draw settlers to the area. The site also includes a functioning blacksmith shop, one room school house, and an 1850s era log cabin.

Gallery

File:Corning_tower.jpg, Corning's Little Joe Tower File:Corning_6.jpg, Corning File:Corning_3.jpg, Corning

Notable people

Thomas S. Buechner Thomas Scharman Buechner (pronounced BEAK-ner; September 25, 1926 – June 13, 2010) was an artist who turned to working at museums, who became the founding director of the Corning Museum of Glass and director of the Brooklyn Museum, where he o ...

(1926–2010), founding director of

* Frederick Carder, glass artist * Joseph Costa, aviation pioneer *

Duane Eddy Duane Eddy (born April 26, 1938) is an American rock and roll guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including " Rebel ...

, Grammy Award-winning guitarist * Edd Hall, US television personality, announcer * Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1878–1951), social activist, mother of Katharine Hepburn * Alanson B. Houghton, United States Congressman * Amory Houghton, United States ambassador * Amory "Amo" Houghton Jr., politician * James R. Houghton, chairman of Corning Inc. *

John N. Hungerford John Newton Hungerford (December 31, 1825 – April 2, 1883) was a banker, philanthropist, and a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from New York (state), New York. Although he had no children, one of his focuses in l ...

, United States Congressman * Greg Keagle, MLB player * Caroline Ella Heminway Kierstead, geologist * Harvey Littleton, glass artist * Eric Massa, United States Congressman * Tom Reed, United States Congressman * Margaret Sanger (1879 (born Margaret Louise Higgins)–1966), founder of American Birth Control League * Samuel Sevian, chess prodigy, youngest Grandmaster US chess history * John Tillman, head lacrosse coach, University of Maryland, College Park * Charles C. B. Walker, United States Congressman * Christi Wolf, champion female

bodybuilder Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...

and professional wrestler best known for her stint in World Championship Wrestling

Sister cities

* Lviv, Ukraine *

Kakegawa is a city in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 117,925 in 45,519 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Kakegawa is in the coastal plains of southwest Shizuoka Prefecture. It is border ...

, Shizuoka, Japan (formerly Osuka which was annexed by Kakegawa) *

San Giovanni Valdarno San Giovanni Valdarno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany, central Italy, located in the valley of the Arno River. History According to the Italian medieval historian Giovanni Villani, the town was founded in 1296, by th ...

, Tuscany, Italy

References

External links

*
Chamber of Commerce website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Corning (City), New York Company towns in New York (state) Cities in New York (state) Populated places established in 1796 Cities in Steuben County, New York 1796 establishments in New York (state)