On August 4, 1913, the state let a contract to improve of roads in Hudson Falls, including part of modern NY 196. The rebuilt highways were added as state highways on January 19, 1914, as SH 1080. The section of what is now NY 196 in Hartford was improved under a project contracted out on June 28, 1922, and completed by 1926 as SH 8101. The Hudson Falls–Hartford state highway—comprising SH 720, SH 720A, and parts of SH 1080 and SH 8101—was not assigned a posted route number until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, when hundreds of state-maintained roads were given a posted designation for the first time. The Hudson Falls–Hartford highway was designated as NY 196, and the alignment of the route has not changed since that time.