Corning, New York: A Ramble down Market Street

As the song from My Fair Lady goes, “I have often walked down this street before…” At first sight, Market Street in Corning, New York is like a lot of other ‘Main Streets’ in the U.S.—not the same thing it was a hundred years ago, or fifty years ago; lined with pleasant shops and places to eat. But, as it turns out, it’s more than that.

As usually happens when I’ve been somewhere and get ready to write about it, all sorts of things start to tumble out of the history closet, often helped, as in this case, with a locally-organized online walking tour. It turns out the Market Street I visited this year is in not its first, but its second revival, and the second revival has been a model for other older towns across the country.

Yes, glass is still big in Corning. Two interesting storefronts and galleries below; above, T.G. Hawkes partnered with Frederick Carder to from Steuben Glass, known for artwork. Vitrix carries on glassblowing in the building today.

Corning is obviously best-known for Corning Glass, the city’s biggest employer for well over a hundred years, but the area’s first industry, in the early 1800s, was lumber, cut in the area, and rafted down the river to the Susquehanna and beyond. Later, a canal supplemented the route, and coal, grain and whiskey became important cargoes.

At one end of Market Street, a reminder of Corning’s days as a rail and canal center, and a more whimsical hint of another form of transport.

Around 1850, railroads arrived, along with the name Corning, honoring Albany political power and railroad consolidator Erastus Corning. But the big move came in 1856 when the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works moved upstate and changed its name to match the town. Other glass companies followed and Corning became known as the Crystal City.

Tommy Hilfiger, whose name is on the store above, was a local boy, but so was architect H.C. Tuthill, who built it as his own office. He designed many of the Market Street buildings; his name is on the impressive Williams Block, along with some lovely terra cotta decorations.

And Market Street grew and became an important part of the economy, but not so much the consumer magnet we see today. The buildings on its north side back up on what was a major industrial area, and then the river, and most of its business served those industries or their workers.

Proud names on buildings were common, but the Henkel family carried it a bit further than others, with three on one block of Market. 60, bottom right, and 72, top and at title, are both labeled Henkel Block and are often confused in real estate ads. 64 is just Henkel Buildkng. 72 was the tallest building in western New York for years. It was built with a hydraulic elevator powered by the city’s water system.

Corning lies on both sides of the Chemung River, which was a factor in its founding, its growth as an important industrial town and eventually, through a disaster, in the second revival of Market Street. In 1972, the river, driven by Hurricane Agnes, flooded most of the city, and wiped out most of Market Street’s businesses.

But that wasn’t the first disaster to reshape Corning. Most of the handsome brick and stone buildings that line the street today were built after a late 19th-century fire destroyed blocks of wooden buildings. Prosperous merchants were anxious to rebuild in more durable materials, and hired architects to do it up in style—although, it’s been noted, in styles that were going out of style in larger cities.

Some of the more colorful buildings on Market. The Market Street Coffee building, originally The Boston Store, has the only second-floor bay window for over 100 miles around, if that sort of thing excites you.

Market Street is the heart of what Corning promoters have dubbed the Gaffer District—gaffer is a trade term for a glassblower—and has an active website at GafferDistrict.com, offering all kinds of special events, sales, promotions, and the walking tour, which we followed on one of our days walking the street.

There’s a mystery hidden here; The Bacall’s building was built for partners who planned to open a bank. To avoid break-ins through the basement wall, they left the two half-lots on either side vacant. But before the bank opened, they ran out of money, and were forced to sell. The new owners added walls and a roof to the empty spaces and extended the building.

From the tour we learned that plans for revitalizing a declining district had already been underway before the flood, but the flood moved everything up front and center, and made funds available quickly to clean up and then begin restoring the shops, and to start on a longer term project of turning upper floors into apartments.

Above, some second-floor decorations, and a whimsical ad for a clothing boutique. Below, a small theatre and another handsome building

This unusual-for-Market-Street Art Deco storefront houses the children’s lab programs of the Rockwell Museum, located around the corner in Corning’s former City Hall. The museum is a Smithsonian Affiliate.

Before we go, here’s a small assortment of whimsical art, and a totally improbable name for a brewery.

Over the years since, Market Street has been at the center of Corning’s transition from a small industrial city to a small tourism-friendly industrial city with lots of interesting food, museums and other attractions to offer visitors.