Corning Inc.'s Fall Brook plant, where generations of workers made everything from Christmas ornaments to television tubes, will be demolished beginning next month, another sign of the transformation of both the company and this factory town 100 miles south of Rochester.

The glass factory operated for 72 years before closing in 2002, costing the jobs of 150 workers. At the time the plant was shuttered, 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.

The closing came as part of a companywide restructuring following the collapse of the telecommunications market in 2001. Telecom had generated 70 percent of Corning Inc.'s revenue in 2001, but now accounts for less than 40 percent as the company has stepped up the manufacture of liquid crystal display glass.

Corning Inc. also has important environmental and life sciences units, and remains one of the state's leading companies, with $4.6 billion in annual sales and 26,000 employees worldwide.

Historian Thomas Dimitroff said Fall Brook — named for the former Fall Brook Railroad, which brought coal from Pennsylvania for use in Corning's factories — was among the last of the local glass factories that once stretched along the Chemung River.

Corning Inc. spokeswoman Kelli Hopp-Michlosky said demolition will continue through next summer. When the site is cleared, it will provide 19 acres for redevelopment. The site is in the city's Empire Zone, which would provide significant tax breaks to any new business locating there.

Mike Walker, president of Local 1000 of the United Steelworkers of America, was the union executive at Fall Brook when it closed.

"A lot of careers were spent there," he said. "It was just good folks and a good business."

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