In 2018, the City of Glens Falls purchased for back taxes the property formerly known as the Glens Falls Tennis and Swim Club, on East Sanford Street, in the Town of Queensbury, on the eastern border of Glens Falls.  The majority of the property falls within a large area of delineated wetlands which extend east, north and south beyond the current approximately 6.5-acre footprint. The objective in acquiring the property was to create a publicly accessible natural asset that would complement the city's existing portfolio of parks and trails.

Following the acquisition of the property, several ad hoc committees consisting of community members, and city, town and county officials met to discuss possible uses for the site and received favorable feedback from neighboring landowners who expressed interest in contributing their property, either through fee simple or easement.  In the winter of 2024, a New York State not-for-profit corporation named the Crockwell Partnership, Inc., was formed to provide a more formal structure around the planning and community engagement regarding the former Tennis and Swim Club property. The Partnership has been granted 501(c)3 status by the IRS. It is expected that the Partnership will ultimately manage the Preserve, through an agreement with the City.

It is the Partnership's desire, as well as the City's, that the body of water known as Crockwell Pond will become the property of the City or the Crockwell Partnership and be made a part of the Crockwell Preserve. Crockwell Pond is owned by Warren and Washington Counties as Trustees for SUNY Adirondack. It was formerly used by the college for biological field work, and was periodically dredged and maintained, but it has not been used for that purpose for many years. The pond was gifted by Margaret Crockwell for use by the college, to be retained "forever wild." 

The City and the Crockwell Partnership agree that the Preserve will include both educational and recreational features that will attract students, residents and tourists to this unique wetland area. In July, 2024, the City, in collaboration with the Crockwell Partnership, issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking submissions from environmental planning and landscape architecture firms with wetland and / or public park experience, to provide conceptual design services, a needs assessment, and associated cost estimates for the Crockwell Preserve. The City allocated approximately $70,000 for this study, which funds were derived from the federal ARPA grant to the City. After review of all proposals submitted, and interviews with finalists, LaBella Associates was selected to perform design services and present concepts pursuant to the goals stated in the RFQ.

Phase I of the Plan will include preliminary designs for an Environmental Learning Center, walking trails, recreational amenities, and will design accessibility options between Crockwell Pond and the Preserve. Planning should include evaluating the need for continued maintenance for pond silt control, proper flow into and out of the pond and ways to maintain a healthy aquatic ecosystem. The pond serves as a feeding, resting and breeding ground for many types of amphibians and birds. It is also critical that the Crockwell Preserve be accessible by foot to the residents of Glens Falls via sidewalks and other amenities and Phase I should include that objective.

Phase 2 of the Plan should consider the potential use of neighboring properties (via purchase, donation, easements, gifts) and the potential expansion of trails from the site. The former Tennis and Swim Club property itself includes wetlands and borders a very large area of wetlands located on both the south and north sides of Quaker Road. The wetlands on the south side are largely privately owned and feature ditches extending both north and south that were dug to drain the fields when the Oudekerk Celery Farm existed just beyond the Tennis and Swim Club property. Current-day maps clearly show these ditches between the terminus of East Sanford Street and the Nemer Property north and west of the Swim and Tennis Club property. At least one ditch runs under Quaker Road. These ditches should be under consideration as potential recreational assets used for kayaking as well as their relationship to drainage and the existing ecosystem. The wetlands on the north side comprise an approximately 900-acre contiguous wetland ecosystem commonly referred to as the Big Cedar Swamp, much of which is publicly owned. The Queensbury 2003 Open Space Plan identified the Big Cedar Swamp as supporting more than 149 species of plants and animals, five of which were at the time designated species of special concern by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Addressing potential hydrological challenges (water table, residential neighborhoods west of Tennis and Swim Club) along with maintaining ecological balance should inform all recommendations. 

Another important objective is to acknowledge the historical and cultural significance of Spencer Douglass and Margaret Braman Crockwell, who donated the land for the Glens Falls Tennis and Swim Club in the mid-1960s; as already mentioned, Margaret donated Crockwell Pond for public use. Douglass Crockwell (1904-1968) was a prolific commercial artist and illustrator, a fine artist, an experimental filmmaker and a muralist. Similar to his better-known contemporary Norman Rockwell, Crockwell is perhaps best known for his cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. He operated out of his home and studio at 245 East Sanford Street and was a community leader in Glens Falls. The plan includes evaluating whether the Crockwell home and studio, and any associated parcels, are eligible for listing on the State or National Register of Historic Places either individually or within a district, and what the impact of such designation would be on the larger project itself.