"The Kings Highway" is a legendary term that has been used to describe any of the country roads out of colonial Albany that may have been built by the British army during the French and Indian War. However, it most often refers to the main route through the "Pine Bush" from Albany to Schenectady.

This overland thoroughfare connecting the Hudson and the Mohawk was in existence from the earliest days of the community and was first used by Native American hunters bringing their furs to Beverwyck and then Albany.

Until the mid-18th century, the Kings Highway was little more than a path through the woods. But it was improved dramatically by British and provincial soldiers during the last of the colonial wars. After the war, many new settlers were travelling west from Albany over this road. By that time, the western parts of it were maintained under contract with the Albany city government.

On the Albany end, the Kings Highway began at the Schenectady gate of the stockade and continued uphill and into the pine barrens along the route of today's Washington Avenue.

The detail shown on the left is from a map of Rensselaerswyck made in 1767. It clearly traces the overland route from Albany (according to the map's legend) - past Christie's at Sandy Hill (#64) - west to "John Ritchie's at the Kil" (#65) - then to "the Verbergh" (#66) - then west to Isaac Truax's tavern (#69) near the northern border of Rensselaerswyck, and finally the last seven or so miles west to Schenectady.

At the Schenectady end of the Kings Highway, cargoes and travellers could be loaded onto boats and moved west along the Mohawk into the Iroquois country and beyond.

By the time of the American Revolution, buildings began to dot the way along Lion Street - the western extension of State Street and Maiden Lane. Monier's lumber yard and Bromley's inn were part of this development.