Tag Archives: Market Street

Take a One-Mile Walk — on Sidewalk

A couple of weeks ago, both for business and for pleasure, I made several stops in Corning that required walking from one end of Market Street to the other, and back again. Since Market is half a mile long, I did a mile walk.

*If you’re doing that walk for exercise or pleasure, you can enjoy yourself checking out all the varied architectural facades. You can take in the clock tower at the Centerway Square, and stop in next door at the visitors center in the Baron Steuben Building to use the rest rooms.

*You can get a Texas hot across the street, or smoothies down at the Soulful Cup coffeehouse. You can study the art at West End Gallery, or at the ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes. You should check out the “blade signs.” Corning is famed for these creative signs coming out at right angles to their buldings.

*There are quite a few other places around our region where you can walk a mile without having to leave the sidewalks – which can be a fun way to keep fit when the woods and fields are icy, soaked or snowcovered.

*Stand by the bandstand in BATH’s Pulteney Square, look up Liberty Street, then walk out of the park onto the Liberty sidewalk at your left (the west side). Keep walking up Liberty (crossing Washington) until you get to the Civil War statue. Walk back to the bandstand, and you’ve done a mile.

*Besides the bandstand and the statue, you’ll see the “three sisters” near the statue – three elaborate matching 19th-century homes, created in part to promote a lumber business. You pass the monumental 19th-century St. Thomas Church, across from the delightful contemporary Centenary Methodist Church.

*As on Market Street, enjoy the business facades, but recognize that many of Bath’s buildings are older, such as the 1860 county courthouse and the 1835 Bank of Steuben, almost directly across the Square. The green space in the Square has several monuments, and the dramatic First Presbyterian Church is on the south.

*In CANANDAIGUA if you use the courthouse as one anchor, the pier a mile away is the other.

*Susan B. Anthony was tried in that courthouse for the crime of voting, and fined a hundred dollars. She said she would never pay one penny of that unjust fine, and she never did.

*On your Canandaigua walk you’ll cross active railroad tracks (watch your steps), besides passing art galleries, a paperback book store, an embroidery shop, and even a comic book store. All of this depends on which side of the street you’re on, and Canadaigua’s Main Street has four lanes, plus a grassy median… so once again, watch your step!

*Also watch the “green” sidewalk features that Canandaigua has created to capture rainwater and naturally process it… a marvelous addition to the city. And, of course, if you walk north to south you just improve your view of the lake with every step.

*Start on Main Street in CANISTEO, walk up Greenwood (the old trolley route) to the elementary school and back, and you’ve got a mile. This also gives you a chance to see the famed “living sign” tree plantation spelling out the name of the village up on a hillside near the school.

*Also by the school is the very pleasant cemetery, including two 1920s gravestones appallingly inscribed with “K.K.K.” On a less horrifying note, there are also historic homes and churches on Greenwood Street, plus the businesses and churches down on Main Street and the village green area.

*So – want a little exercise, but at your own rate, with frequent breaks allowed and a good surface underfoot? There are plenty of one-mile walks available in our communities. We’ll look at some more, another time.

Corning — Worth a Trip

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Last week in this space we talked about making a visit to Lima, and this week I thought we’d discuss a visit to Corning.

That may seem superfluous for a paper published IN Corning, but the magic of the internet is that people could be reading his anyplace in the world. And even local folks often overlook what’s right in their own back yard.

For some background, once upon a time there were two Indian towns here – one at the “Painted Post” (at the point where the waters meet), and one at the Chimney Narrows… roughly near the Cedar Street bridge, on the Northside.

Both towns were under Seneca rule, as this whole region was, but the residents weren’t necessarily Seneca by ethnicity. The Southern Tier formed a sort of military frontier, and the Seneca took in distressed groups pushed out by Europeans. These settlers in their new towns formed a sort of distant-early-warning system against white encroachment.

After the Revolution, of course, the U.S. looted millions of acres away from the Iroquois, having already savaged their towns during Sullivan’s invasion. What we now call the Patterson Inn on Pulteney Street was already welcoming visitors in the 1790s, before their was any appreciable permanent white population out here.

What grew up was three settlements… one at the Painted Post, and called by that name; one on the Northside, called Knoxville; and one on the Southside, called Corning. Over time “urban sprawl” has connected them all, and even reached out to take in the Gang Mills. Technically there are three municipalities now… Town of Erwin, Town of Corning, and City of Corning. The incorporated Villages of Riverside, South Corning, and Painted Post remain parts of their towns.

It seems to me that people start their visits to Corning by either heading to the Glass Museum, or strolling down Market Street. Market was lined with saloons and strip joints prior to the 1972 flood, just as Tioga Street was rail tracks and factories. It’s a far more elegant setting today.

One feature seizing the custom of many visitors, not to mention area folks, is several Market Street antique shops. By the nature of things their stock changes constantly, so you never know what you’ll be turning up. Twin Tiers Antiques Plaza has two above-street levels. Market Street Antiques & Collectibles always has a good collection of old-time series books aimed at children – Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and more. Mecca Books is a used-book store, where I frequently find comic books to strengthen my collection. Corning Bike Works lovingly keeps a classic “Whizzer” in the front window.

Any visitation of course includes dining, or at least eating. It’s always touchy to write about restaurants, because you just can’t visit them all. But over the years I’ve sampled a fair number.

*Sorge’s is a long-established Corning tradition, in the same family for decades and specializing in Italian food. It’s a very pleasant ambiance, and they’ve come back strong from a catastrophic fire several years ago.
*Rico’s makes excellent pizza, and serves specialty sodas.
*Aniello’s, at the other end of the street, is usually filled with happy chatter. Put in your order at the counter, and get a slice or two of pizza – just right for a quick lunch, especially if you’re by yourself.
*Soul Full Cup is a with-it coffee shop, which makes a good vanilla chai smoothie (among other things).
*Jim’s Texas Hots is a narrow little shop, with tables out on the sidewalk in good weather. They make the best hot dogs with meat sauce (Texas hots) in the four-county area.
*On or just off the street are several chain fast-food places, too.

There are plenty of other retailers, such as Connor’s Mercantile (they get a gold star – they carry my books). West End Gallery treats strollers to a Daliesque melting watch above the storefront. In fact, look up as you’re walking. Market Street is famed for its colorful and creative “blade signs” – merchant and business signs at right angles to the building front.

Up on Spencer Hill is Corning Community College, home to Spencer Crest Nature Center. Corning, in fact, can be a good spot for a few minutes of birding, even if you only have a few minutes. A peregrine falcon once laded right by me outside the library. I once saw a pair of eagles on the flats east of town. And all sorts of waterfowl drift by along he river. Go out on the Centerway pedestrian bridge, and see what you see. The bridge itself leads out from Centerway Square, with its visitor center and its 19th-century clock tower.

Of course, we haven’t even discussed those three significant Corning attractions – Corning Museum of Glass, Rockwell Museum (art of the American west), and Heritage Village of the Finger Lakes, built around the Patterson Inn Museum. Corning’s worth a trip. Have you made one lately?