Crary Art Gallery

From 1900 to 1937 a far different structure, the residence of Jerry and Laura Dunham Crary, stood on the site where the Crary Art Gallery now stands. It was one of the largest homes in Warren and was built in the Italian Renaissance style, with a broad front porch facing Market Street and a portico on its north face. The only remaining artifact of that residence is carriage house to the west of the gallery on Sixth Avenue.

The current structure was built in 1962 as the Stuart J. Myers family home, following the general plan of a Roman villa. The Myers home was purchased in the early 1970s by the photographer Clare J. Crary and his painter wife Gene Alden Walker Crary. They intended this interesting structure to be an art gallery. Unfortunately Clare passed away in 1975 before the dream could be realized, but his wife opened The Crary Art Gallery two years later with a memorial exhibition of works by her photographer husband. After Gene's death in 1988, the Board of Directors opened further galleries in the building: the Oriental room, the Crary-Dunham Room and the Fountain Room.

In 1997, following a series of exhibits by guest artists, the gallery blossomed further. The northeast walled garden was transformed into the Sculpture Court with the installation of a glass ceiling. The grand re-opening in 2000 featured works by sculptor Marion Sanford, Gene's friend and fellow alumna of the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. These pieces remain at the gallery on extended loan from the Warren County Historical Society and Warren General Hospital.