Local History Post of the Week: September 18, 2026

Hi everyone, and welcome to our weekly local history post!

Each week we’ll share vintage newspaper articles from years past, drawn from local publications such as the Corning Blossburg Advocate, Corning Independent, The Corning Journal, The Evening Leader, and other local newspapers. We’ll also feature the complete issue of The Corning Leader exactly 100 years to the day from each blog post. From time to time, we’ll include newly taken photographs of local historic places, landmarks, and artifacts.

Vintage Article(s) of the Week

This week we have two vintage articles of the week; both from 1926 and a map that relates to the second article.

The first article is about the Corning City Council discussing the subject of daily savings time – and this was in 1926 years before the federal law – the Uniform Time Act was passed in 1966! And if you can imagine it – cities could set their own official time – and daylight savings time was a hot topic even then!

Daylight Savings To End Sept. 5 Council Favors Referendum | The Evening Leader, Corning, N.Y. | August 3, 1926

And our second vintage article is on the Glass Works plan to enclose Pyrex Park with a fence. Pyrex Park was located near the river on the Northside, near where the high school is today and the map, which is from a few years later – it is a New York State DPW map from 1947, shows where the old park was – it is gone now – but lots of baseball games were played there.

Corning Glass Works To Enclose Pyrex Park Gridiron By Wooden Fence | The Evening Leader, Corning, N.Y. | September 14, 1926

And here is a portion of the 1947 DPW map of Corning, that shows where Pyrex Park was located:

A Glimpse of Local Life: A Hundred Years Ago!

Here is an entire issue of The Evening Leader, Corning, N.Y. published on this day in 1926.

The Evening Leader, Corning, N.Y. | September 18, 1926

Have a great weekend everyone,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

Local History Online Library Resources:

Heritage Quest: Heritage Quest is the library’s online genealogy service, and it includes access to census records and other research sources; it can be accessed by going to the Online Resources page, on the library’s website, and scrolling down until you see the link for Heritage Quest:

https://www.ssclibrary.org/research/online-resources/

Once you’ve clicked on the Heritage Quest link, you’ll be prompted to login with your card number and PIN. If you have questions about how to use Heritage Quest, please feel free to let me know – my email address is reimerl@stls.org

Library Local History/Creation Station Resources:
At the library you can scan your photos and slides to create digital family albums and slideshows; and even use one of the Circut machines, and other Creation Station equipment, to help you create a special paper family history album.

Also of note, we have local papers including the Corning Leader, Corning Evening Leader, Corning Journal and Corning Daily Journal, on microfilm from 1840 to the present — so you can visit the library and research local history and your family tree if you wish!

Local History & Newspaper blog posts are published on Fridays.