In 1892, local philanthropist and businessman Henry Crandall offered to fund a public library in Glens Falls and gave $2,500 to Superintendent of Glens Falls City Schools Dr. Sherman Williams for furniture and books. On February 9, 1893, New York State granted a public library charter for Glens Falls, leading to the Crandall Free Library, later called Crandall Library, in one of Crandall’s Bay Street business buildings. Before his death in 1913, Crandall created a trust fund that supported the library, Glens Falls City Park, and Crandall Park. When demolition began along Bay Street in 1919 to make way for the new City Park, the library moved to the Jerome Lapham House on Ridge Street north of City Hall, where it remained from 1919 to 1931. Construction of a permanent home at the present location began in 1929, and the new library was finished and dedicated in September 1931, after which the Lapham House was demolished. After nearly forty years of operation, the library underwent significant renovations in 1969, became a taxing district library in 1992 and took the name Crandall Public Library, and expanded in 2009 to double its size, with the north side of the building remaining from 1931.