In December 2006, Corning Inc. is to demolish its Fall Brook Plant, where generations of workers made items ranging from Christmas ornaments to glass buttons to television bulbs, The glass factory, op…
In December 2006, Corning Inc. is to demolish its Fall Brook Plant, where generations of workers made items ranging from Christmas ornaments to glass buttons to television bulbs, The glass factory, operated for 72 years before closing in 2002. Corning Inc. spokeswoman Kelli Hopp-Michlosky said demolition will begin in December and continue through the summer of 2007. She said no information was immediately available on the extent of environmental remedial work necessary at the site. When the site is cleared, it will provide 7.69 hectares of prime city centre property for redevelopment. “Our objective is to clear the assets and start preparing the site for re-use by another developer”, Hopp-Michlosky said. “Once the site is cleared, we will make it available to the local economic development agencies to seek an appropriate use”. When Fall Brook closed late in 2002 with the loss of 150 jobs it was making glass tubing for the television industry. Corning Inc. said it could no longer compete with similar operations in Asia and Eastern Europe. Opened in 1930, Fall Brook produced Christmas ornaments, glass buttons, color television tubes, necks for television bulbs and glass for computer chips and photonics products. It was named after the former Fall Brook Railroad yards on the glassworks site. The railroad brought coal from Pennsylvania for use in Corning“s plants. The closure was part of a companywide restructuring following the collapse of the telecommunications market in 2001. At the time of the closure, local historian Thomas Dimitroff said Fall Brook was among the last of the glass factories that once lined the Chemung River in Corning city from the Bridge Street Bridge to the Pressware Plant at Steuben Street. Pressware, owned by World Kitchen Inc., manufactures Corelle dinnerware. He said the loss of Fall Brook and other glass factories removes visual reminders of Corning“s origins as a factory town.