Neighbor Brings Retired Women Together

by Kathy Kinnin

Albany, NY – The main roads in the Pine Hills are no longer made up of wooden planks nor is Western Avenue called the Great Western Turnpike as it was at the turn of the century. The area was the gateway to Schenectady and New York City but the Pine Hills still had a sense of a community. Marilyn Douglas moved to the Pine Hills area of Albany more than 30 years ago because of that small hamlet feel. She was a librarian at the New York State Library when she and her husband relocated there. The Pine Hills offered everything she was looking for within walking distance. It had a beautiful Victorian library, a movie theatre, grocery store, dry cleaners, drug store and a stationery store.

(Kathy Klinnin)

The old time gas station that she went to closed when a new one was built on West Lawrence one block from the Point where Western and Madison come together. The library moved to a new facility across from the new gas station and Clapps, her neighborhood stationery store closed. Still, Douglas still enjoys the sense of community.

Pine Hills has a rich history that can be seen in the ornate buildings along Madison Avenue and the 150-year-old LaSalle School on Western Avenue. Douglas was drawn to the area because of the beautiful library on Madison which in now the Administration offices for The College of Saint Rose. In the mid 1970′s, she and her husband started looking for an apartment to rent in the Pine Hills neighborhood because of the proximity to her work at the State Library just a few miles away downtown. They were looking for apartments in the $200 a month range but found that they could get a mortgage for about the same price. This was all of the information they needed to plant their roots on Ryckman Avenue.

Since retiring from the library, Douglas realized that everyone gets busy with their jobs and lives that they don’t necessarily know the families who live around them so she got involved in regaining that sense of community. She became a more active member in the Pine Hill Neighborhood Association, became a member of the Friends of the Madison Theatre and she started her own group, The Pine Hills Neighborhood Retired Ladies (PHNRL) to get to know other women from the area. The group meets once a month to chat about whatever is on their minds regarding the neighborhood or just life.

Requirements for Membership are written but not strongly enforced. They are: you must live in Pine Hills (give or take a few blocks), you must be retired (or at least sort of retired) and you must be a woman (this one is enforced). The group started small but now has an email list of about 30 women. The amount of people that go to the Muddy Cup on Madison Avenue for coffee and tea during the meeting time fluctuates but the meetings are consistently held on the third Thursday of the month. Douglas has found that the women who attend the meetings are active in other groups as well. Despite the nickname of “The Old Biddies,” this group is far from dormant. They all have some hand in the community whether it be in the Neighborhood Association, The League of Women Voters, the Zoning Board or simply getting involved in neighborhood cleanup days and the group brings them all back together.

Together these women have spent centuries in the neighborhood, they are the roots that provide a sense of community.

Douglas remembers when the Madison Theatre had a single screen and when she and her husband would walk to see the latest movie. Even though the theatre has changed and split into many screens, she is still involved in the Friends of the Madison Theatre group that was vocal in keeping the theatre open. She knows that times change, stores change but the sense of community that brought her to Pine Hills still remains. A small art gallery next to CVS Pharmacy is now near where Clapps used to be and Bruegger’s Bagels replaced the old drugstore but she can still walk from her house on Ryckman Avenue to find everything she needs. And she does still walk in the neighborhood. Despite the changes, Douglas says she feels safe in the Pine Hills.

Other members of the group feel that sense of community as well and some have never moved out of the Pine Hills area. Marie Tenney has lived in the Pine Hills almost all of her entire life. She and her husband even met there. He transplanted to the Pines Hills in the 1940′s and she in 1953. They live only a block and a half from where they met on South Allen Street. The Morris street home that they have resided in since 1969, is where they raised their five children and now often host their 12 grandchildren. They are both more than willing to talk about the history of Pine Hills.

Pam Williams is one of the new kids on the block. She moved to the Pine Hills from the suburbs eight years ago. She likes to walk to stores and restaurants in her neighborhood. She heard about the Pine Hills Neighborhood Retired Ladies group from a friend of a friend. Even though Douglas lives three blocks away, they still find each other between meetings generally at Bruegger’s, Williams said, “It’s nice to be shopping or walking down the street and see people that you know from the group. It gives you a sense of community.”

Douglas knows that in order to keep a community safe, clean and welcoming everyone must think about the environment as well as their neighbors. Marilyn Douglas is certainly doing her part. Williams said, “This is a good group to get to know a whole bunch of nifty women which is true, I have, including Marilyn. I am glad I belong to the group. ” -30-