Alumni Quadrangle

Educational institutions loom large in Pine Hills history. Here's more proof: Alumni Quadrangle, a dormitory complex that's part of the University at Albany, SUNY.

The institution that eventually became UAlbany was founded in 1844 as the State Normal School. The college, which trained young women and men to be teachers, established a campus about a half-mile east of here in 1909.

For most of its first hundred years, the college had no dormitories. Instead, school administrators would recommend "suitable" boarding houses and rooms in the homes of "respectable families" to students coming from out of town. As the school grew, so did the need for student housing. The Alumni Association purchased land here and funded the building of two dormitories. The oldest, Pierce Hall (around the corner on Ontario), opened in 1935 as a women's residence. It was the first dormitory at a New York state school. Sayles Hall, for men, opened 1941. The other dorms here date from the 1950s.