Historic Structures - Corning New York and Towanda Pennsylvania

Following our tour of The Rockwell Museum in Corning, we drove around some nearby streets and took a few photos of interesting buildings before heading southeast back toward Pennsylvania.   

The first photo is on a postcard dated 1911.  This 2 1/2 story brick building used to be the home of the Corning City Club.  It was built in 1897 in a style that combined Colonial Revival and Classical Revival elements.  Following a fire in 1926 that heavily damaged the building it was decided that it should be made into a memorial to Corning natives who lost their lives in World War I.  The Corning City Club moved to a local hotel.  At the same time, the town's library, which was located on the upper floor of the City Hall building required more space.  So the two needs were combined.  The building opened to the public on Memorial Day in 1930.

The library remained here until 1975 when it was moved to the new civic center plaza.  Today this striking structure has been once again transformed...this time into apartments.

The First Presbyterian Church, located at 1 East First Street, was built using local stone in 1867 after the Civil War.  It is the oldest church building in use in Corning.  Its congregation was organized way back in 1811.  This church was built diagonally across the street from the previous church and it cost $36,000.  The church bell came from the old church, having been cast in West Troy New York in 1845.  It still serves this 'new' church, having chimed for 190 years in 2025.

This very eye-catching home's style is referred to as a 'cottage'...or the Rural Gothic Style.  This facade, which is on First Street features some Gothic Revival stylings.  Located at 155 Cedar Street, it was built for the Drake family shortly after the Civil War.  After it was damaged by arson in the 1990s, it was extensively renovated and incorporated into the 171 Cedar Arts Center Campus.  The north end of the first floor now houses the Center's Houghton Art Gallery.  To learn more about the Cedar Arts Center, go to https://171cedararts.org/.

This Corning neighborhood is home to the Southside Historic District as registered with the National Register of Historic Places.  The district includes 624 contributing buildings and the area is predominantly residential.  The area developed after 1835 and includes a mix of Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian architecture.

This is Christ Episcopal Church.  The 400-seat church is early English Gothic in style...representative of many early Episcopal Churches.  The structure was completed in 1895 after an earlier structure (1853) was burned down in 1889.  The tower bell was cast in Troy New York in 1871.  It was salvaged from the fire at the church that burned down...so at 154 years old it's young compared to the 190 year old bell at the Presbyterian Church.  

Adding to the beauty of Christ Episcopal Church are almost 85 stained glass windows that are installed in the sanctuary.  Most of the older ones were produced by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company or the J. & R. Lamb Studios.

Shown above, the "Resurrection window" on the south wall was installed by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in July of 1895.  It depicts the four gospel versions of the Resurrection in the magnificent colors of Tiffany glass.

There are several other historic churches in Corning but I only took photos of the ones that were along our route in this neighborhood.  This is the First United Methodist Church at 144 Cedar Street.  This impressive and massive Richardson Romanesque church building was completed in 1894 after two years of construction.  Note that striking rose window...a sextet...at the center of the facade.  This is the third building to house the congregation...which was founded in 1839.  The church was designed to be able to accommodate/seat 1,000 parishioners.  With it's massive foundation, red brick and terra cotta walls, the multitude of windows and columns, combined with the green roof, this church is grabs one's attention from a distance.

To view several photos of the interior of all three churches that I photographed, you can go to https://corningarchitecture.com/corning-architecture-blog/inside-corning-s-churches-a-brief-overview-of-u-s-church-architecture.

This large structure at 10 West First Street in Corning was built in 1903 after a design by John Foster Warner.  Interestingly, at least to me, is the fact that Warner's father had designed the Corning City Hall...now the Rockwell Museum.  The above pictured structure served as the Steuben County Courthouse...and later the Division of Motor Vehicles offices.  But in 2023, the county completely vacated the property and sold it to a developer who intends to transform it into an apartment building as a part of the of the "Restore New York Program" housing efforts.

Leaving Corning, we headed east via NY Hwy 17, turning south on US Hwy 220 at the Pennsylvania State Line.  Nice roads and not much traffic on a beautiful day!

Our next stop was in Towanda Pennsylvania.  Towanda is the county seat for Bradford County, hence the courthouse shown in the above photo.  This 4-story, cruciform shaped building with its 50 foot diameter octagonal dome, displays both Classical Revival and Renaissance Revival design influences.  The tall monument at the right of the photo was erected in 1901, (another source said 1905), in memory of the soldiers and sailors of Bradford County who defended their country in the War of the Rebellion/Civil War, 1861 to 1865.  The courthouse underwent significant repairs through 2018.

Towanda is located on the Susquehanna River.  Towanda means "burial ground" in the Algonquian language.  The town was settled in 1784 and it became the county seat in 1812.  It was once known for its industry, including flour milling, silk mills, a foundry and machine shop, dye works, manufacturers of 'talking machines', cut glass, toys and furniture.  In 1900 the city had 4,663 residents but today the estimated number of citizens only totals about 2,910.

This depot was built by the Susquehanna and New York Railroad in 1922.  This depot was built with steel lath covered with stucco.  Today it is the office of T (Trowbridge) and Company, a wealth management/investment firm.  Previous occupants have included an art studio, a tax preparation office and a travel agency.  

Back in the day when it was operational as a depot, it had three rooms: ticket office, freight room and a passenger waiting room.  The building was "city steam heated and electric lighted".  In addition, the Postal Telegraph Cable Company also had an office here.

This old freight depot is right across the street, (to the left behind the vehicles and along the tracks), from the former Susquehanna and New York depot.  Rail traffic was critical to the development and growth of Towanda.  The first train arrived in town in September of 1869 and in the 1870s about 6 passenger, 4 freight and 9 coal trains arrived and departed from Towanda each way every day.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad build this freight depot in 1884 as its headquarters.  Subsequently it was used as a station by several rail lines, including Barclay, Lehigh Valley, State Line and Sullivan and the Susquehanna and New York railroads.  The north side of the building housed the station agent, train dispatcher and the Western Union operator.  The freight room as in the rear of the building.

The last railroad to use this trackage was the Towanda Monroeton Shippers Lifeline, a short line railroad that operated on about 6 miles of trackage.  It existed almost exclusively to serve the Wayne Feed Facility in Monroeton.  Today the old depot is home to a chiropractor's office and the Bradford County Tourism Promotion Agency.  The trackage is currently owned by the Reading and Blue Mountain Northern Railroad.

We took the top photo of this old diner in Towanda back in the first week of October.  It was closed and looked neglected.  Note the leaded glass windows.  The Red Rose diner was built by Tierney Dining Cars in 1927.  Tierney Dining Cars' origins can be traced back to 1895 when the company's founder began building truck-based cars modeled after railroad dining cars.  The business evolved and it resulted in the manufacturing of prefabricated diners.  

The Red Rose Diner was brought to Towanda in 2003, and it had 3 owners/operators over the years, but by the time we saw the diner, it had been vacant since 2017.  The good news is that new owners have reopened the diner effective December 2, 2024!  Check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RedRose1927/.

Originally Hale's Opera House, and now the Keystone Theatre, Elias Hale first opened the theater's doors for its first public performance in September of 1887.  The Hale's owned the theatre until 1908.  In 1908, the new owners renamed it the Keystone Opera House.  When the next owner purchased the building, and the proliferation of motion pictures, he renamed it the Keystone Theatre.  The theatre has served Towanda with movies, live performances and community events for 137 years!

Today the theater is owned and operated by the Bradford County Regional Arts Council.  It still offers a wide variety of entertainment including live performances and commercial movies.  You can learn more by going to https://www.bradfordcountymovies.com/keystone-theatre.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by and following along on our road trip!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave