[3] 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 land was developed quickly, with eight Queen Anne style detached homes built by 1889 along Madison Avenue.

[1] Gaylord Logan and Lewis Pratt, two Albany lawyers, using a $100,000 bank loan in 1869 to buy the area which later gave birth to the name of Pine Hills.

Covenants in the deeds "forever prevent the use of the property for business purposes or the sale of intoxicating liquors" which predate the use of zoning in the city of Albany.

[15] Even though the original plan for Pine Hills was a fiscal failure for Logan and Pratt, their lots continued to be sold and the area quickly became a fashionable "semi-suburb" with the city beginning to build more infrastructure to service the growing population.

[1] Logan and Pratt's covenants to keep out commercial activities had a lasting effect on Pine Hills and in the spirit of those who later lived there.

The opposition to commercial activity in the neighborhood successfully derailed attempts to build a school for the deaf and dumb in the 1890s and a "hospital for the incurables" in 1902.

[1] In 1925 the streetcars began to be replaced by buses, first The United Traction Company, and later in 1970 the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA).

[15] Meanwhile, some commercial activities were allowed such as the Pine Hills Pharmacy at 1116 Madison Avenue and Johnston and Linsley's Grocery a few years later.

[1] In 1929 the Madison Theater was opened in Pine Hills, with Mayor John Boyd Thacher II giving the dedicatory address and Al Jolson as the master of ceremonies.

[19] Winchester Gables is unique because the houses are in a Spanish-style architecture, predominately stucco with red tile roofs and many have small towers.

[10] In 1977 the Vincentian Institute closed its doors and was turned into senior apartments and the St Vincent's Community Center.

[32] As part of its 1992 Facility Master Plan, the La Salle School performed $13 million worth of renovations and new construction by 2004.

[35] In 2011 the neighborhood was dealt a blow with the closing of the Pine Hills station of the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Post Office boxes could be transferred to the Stuyvesant Plaza branch in the town of Guilderland, 3 miles (4.8 km) away.

[36] On March 12, 2011, hundreds of individuals, many of which were students from the University at Albany, participated in a riot which involved attempts to overturn cars.

Ridgefield Park on Partridge Street has a baseball, softball, soccer fields, tennis courts, a 20-plot community garden, and spray pool.

Washington Avenue forms the northern border of the neighborhood, connecting Downtown Albany to the western sections of the city.

[citation needed] Albany High School is at the edge of the neighborhood at 700 Washington Avenue,[43] and within walking distance for most of Pine Hills.

[44] The La Salle School, a private Catholic institution, provides education for grades 6 through 12 for youths at risk, along with specialized programs, such as a chemical dependency clinic and juvenile sexual victim/offender services.

[46] Though the University at Albany, SUNY has no educational institutions within Pine Hills, it does have the "Downtown Dorms" of Alumni Quad, in which the College of Saint Rose leases 320 beds in Brubacher Hall.