Upgrading the Hillbilly Highway Lillian Wennenberg and Midge Palmer watched as Corning, Ohio, eroded.
Buildings in the downtown area stood empty, casualties of the shrinking coal mining and railroad industries. Once the economic backbone of the small, southern Ohio town, the business district of the 3,000 resident town was feeling the economic squeeze.
Even the town's tallest building -- the three-story North Valley Bank Building -- went unused. That is, until Wennenberg and Palmer decided to transform the town into a mini-technology sector.