Rensselaer, NY Piano Store
Rensselaer sits on the east bank of the Hudson, looking straight across at Albany. Since 1992 the Hilton family has been selling pianos on the Albany side of that view, and Bob Hilton still runs the store as a family-owned business. For anyone in Rensselaer who has been searching for a piano store in Rensselaer, NY, the closest full-service shop is a short ride over the river.
At Hilton Piano Center you can sit down at digital keyboards, digital pianos, upright and grand pianos, and player pianos, and compare them side by side. We are inside Colonie Center mall at 442 Colonie Center in Albany. Walk in, or call (518) 362-7920 and tell us what you are looking for before you make the trip.
Coming from the Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak Station at 525 East Street, the store is about 10 miles away, roughly a 15 to 20 minute drive. You cross the Hudson into Albany and head out to Colonie Center. Traffic can add time, so leave a little room if you are coming at rush hour.
Our work goes well beyond the showroom floor. We sell new and used pianos, tune and repair them, move them, and rent them. Lessons are available for beginners and returning players. An old upright can be fitted with a PianoDisc or QRS player system, and a silent piano lets someone practice on headphones without disturbing the rest of the house. We also design and install piano labs for schools and churches. Rensselaer keeps its students together on one campus on Van Rensselaer Drive, where the City School District runs both its elementary school and its junior/senior high school, and Doane Stuart teaches kindergarten through twelfth grade on Washington Avenue. School music rooms like these are the kind of space a piano lab is built for.
Hilton Piano Center is the Capital Region’s only authorized Yamaha piano dealer, and an authorized Roland and Casio dealer. Baldwin and Hallet Davis pianos, Dynatone digital models and QRS player systems round out the new side of the floor, while our pre-owned selection turns up Steinway, Kawai and Yamaha instruments from time to time.
Contact the store:
Hilton Piano Center LLC
442 Colonie Center
Albany, NY 12205
518-362-7920
Would you rather write than call? Send us a note through the contact form, tell us you are in Rensselaer (ZIP 12144), and describe the piano or keyboard you have in mind.
About Rensselaer:
The City of Rensselaer, in Rensselaer County, takes its name from Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the patroon who held this stretch of land. For a long time it went by Greenbush, from the Dutch "t'Greyn Bos." Greenbush was chartered as a city in 1897 and renamed Rensselaer, and in 1902 its limits grew to take in the village of Bath and part of East Greenbush. Today about 9,200 people live here, according to the 2020 census.
The Dutch were here early. Settlement dates to at least 1628, and a ferry tied the east shore to Beverwyck, the settlement that became Albany, by 1642. One landmark from that era still stands: Crailo, a manor house built by Hendrick van Rensselaer in the early 1700s and now a New York State museum of colonial Dutch life. Crailo is where British army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh is said to have composed "Yankee Doodle" in the 1750s, which is why the city calls itself "The home of Yankee Doodle."
Railroads shaped the rest of the story. The Boston & Albany Railroad built its depot, shops and roundhouse in Rensselaer, and in 1968 Albany's Union Station functions moved across the river to the city. The Amtrak station there is now among the busiest in New York State. Industry left its mark too: the Hudson River Aniline and Color Works plant made the first brand-name aspirin in the United States before it closed on December 28, 2000.
The waterfront has been given new life since then, with Riverfront Park and the de Laet's Landing esplanade facing the Albany skyline, backed by $3.1 million in state grants for the esplanade. The park also hosts a free summer concert series on Monday evenings from 6 to 8 pm, so live music is part of the city's calendar. You can read more about the city's history on Wikipedia.