Corning, New York

== History ==
{{More citations needed|date=May 2009}}
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 [[Administrative divisions of New York#Village|village]] in 1848. Corning was incorporated as a city in 1890. As the [[glass]] 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]] between 1880 and 1915.

The Corning area's first real industry was [[lumber]]. 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 [[Chemung River]] from Corning, lies [[Gibson, New York|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]]. 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 [[American Civil War|Civil War]] brought an abnormal amount of business, with a peak of 307,151 tons hauled in one year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Corning, New York - The Crystal City - CorningNY.com |url=http://www.corningny.com/history4.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070918130109/http://www.corningny.com/history4.shtml |archive-date=September 18, 2007}}</ref>

After the Civil War, an industrial boom occurred in the region. [[Ingersoll Rand]] opened during this period in [[Painted Post, New York|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]], [[Market Street Historic District (Corning, New York)|Market Street Historic District]], [[Southside Historic District (Corning, New York)|Southside Historic District]], [[World War Memorial Library]], and [[United States Post Office (Corning, New York)|United States Post Office]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>

===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]] to drop six to eight inches (203&nbsp;mm)  of rain in the [[Chemung River]] 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&nbsp;a.m. By 9:00&nbsp;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 [[Corning Museum of Glass]] that indicates on the wall how high the flood waters rose.

[[File:Corning Clock Tower.jpg|thumb|upright|Corning Clock Tower at Market and Pine Streets in downtown Corning.]]