Pine Hill, NY

Pine Hill is a hamlet and census-designated place in the western part of Shandaken, Ulster County, with 275 residents in the 2020 census. It sits in the Catskill Park along the narrow mountain valley, where Route 28 and the old railroad corridor connect the hamlet with Highmount, Belleayre Mountain, and the rest of Shandaken. The Catskill setting is part of the local map, yet Pine Hill’s center is built around older commercial and civic buildings. The Morton Memorial Library and Pine Hill Historic District preserve that village-scale street pattern.

Pine Hill became a resort and transport center when the Ulster and Delaware Railroad reached it in 1872. Around 1885, the Crystal Spring Water Company bottled spring water and shipped as many as six to nine railcars a week to New York City. Hotels, stores, churches, newspapers, a theater, and a bowling alley followed the visitors and workers who made the hamlet a busy Catskill stop. In 2012 the Pine Hill Historic District was listed on the National Register, with 125 contributing buildings. Today the rail-trail connection toward Belleayre and the historic center keep the old resort geography visible.