Robert Aiello grew up in Glasco and is writing a memoir of life in the hamlet. He represents the area in the Ulster County Legislature. He had a hairdressing shop in the village, and is now working as a hairdresser at Freedom Haircuts on Main Street. What follows is his account of Glasco's history and his own memories of growing up there.

The name Glasco comes from a glass manufacturer in Woodstock. The glass was taken to Glasco for shipping, and that’s where the name comes from, but the big industry was brick making. The area has good clay, and the Hudson River made it economical to ship bricks to New York City.

People came from European countries to work in industries here, and people of the same nationality settled close to each other. Glasco was mostly Italian. Cementon, up the

river, was all Polish. The Washburn Brothers opened the first brick yard in Glasco in the 1890s, and turned out 8,000 or 10,000 bricks per day.