Pine Hills, Albany, New York

Pine Hills
City of Albany
Neighborhood
Name origin: for pine covered hilltops in the area
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Albany County
City	Albany
Coordinates	42°39′57″N 73°47′27″W / 42.66583°N 73.79083°W / 42.66583; -73.79083Coordinates: 42°39′57″N 73°47′27″W / 42.66583°N 73.79083°W / 42.66583; -73.79083
Settled	Early 19th century
- Named	1869
Timezone	Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5)
- summer (DST)	Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)
Area code	518
ZIP code	12203, 12208
Location of Pine Hills within the state of New York

Pine Hills is a neighborhood in Albany, New York, generally defined as the area from Manning Boulevard to the west, Woodlawn Avenue to the south, Lake Avenue to the east, and Washington Avenue to the north. The neighborhood consists mainly of freestanding multi-unit, duplex, and semi-detached houses and is home to Albany High School, the LaSalle school, the College of St. Rose, and the Alumni Quad of the University at Albany. Though mostly residential due to historical reasons from its founding, Pine Hills is home to two neighborhood commercial districts (designated C-1 district in 1999); Middle Madison, from Partridge to Quail streets was designated first, and then a latter designated district, Upper Madison, from Main Avenue to North Allen Street. The area of Pine Hills east of Main Avenue and north of Myrtle Avenue is commonly referred to as the student ghetto due to its predominant population of college-age students. The area of Pine Hills west of Main Avenue features many large Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, and Colonial Revival homes. Upper Madison, where it meets Western Avenue near St. Rose is the center of a commercial area, complete with a movie theater, grocery store, fast food strip mall, retail, restaurants, a library, community playhouse, police station, pharmacy, and elementary school.

The area of Pine Hills was originally part of the Albany Pine Bush ecological zone full of sand dunes and 150-foot (46 m) tall pine trees that were used for ship's masts. Perhaps the earliest improvement on the land which would later become Pine Hills occurred in 1799 when the Great Western Turnpike was established through the area and connected Albany to the western portions of the state. This route was used by settlers moving west and cattlemen bringing their livestock back east to sell. In 1849 the turnpike was improved as a plank road. Two hotels were built during the 19th century, at West Lawrence Street and Madison Avenue and at Western Avenue and Allen Street.