If demographics were destiny, the future of Hague would be a matter of concern. Not only has its population shrunk from a high of 1,717 in 1850 to 627 in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available, but the median age has risen to 62.4.
In 1980, the median age in Warren County was 30.9, according to Warren County’s Department of Planning and Community Development. Today, it is 47.5. In Queensbury, the county’s most populous town, the median age is now 47.4. The median age of men and women living Bolton, Chester, Johnsburg, Lake George, Lake Luzerne and Stony Creek hovers past 50. 45% of Hague’s population is sixty and over, 10%, 80 and above. Hague, in other words, is the most elderly of Warren County’s towns.
“That’s an eye opener,” said Tracey Clothier, the consultant retained by the Town of Hague to assist a committee of citizens draft a new comprehensive plan, the first since a 2001 plan was updated in 2017. “It’s important for Hague to understand all the services the community will require in the coming years.”
As Clothier notes, the populations of communities within the Adirondack Park, upstate New York and much of rural America are trending along similar lines.
Warren County, which adopted a comprehensive plan last summer, attested as much. Its Planning Department reported that it is aging much faster than other counties in the state while its school-aged population is declining.
Sustainable school populations, affordable housing, recreational amenities, lively hamlets and robust employment opportunities, are “all connected,” said Norabelle Greenberger, a Warren County’s Planning Department consultant.
Bolton, which also completed a comprehensive plan in 2024, found that school enrollments, a local workforce, year-round businesses and civic and volunteer organizations are all impacted by affordable housing shortages.
“Bolton is not unlike many communities across the Adirondack Park facing housing shortages and aging populations and, consequently, challenges in maintaining workforces and consistent school enrollment levels, as well as stable ranks of Fire Department and EMS volunteers,” said Chris Belden, Bolton’s Director of Planning.
Bolton now funds its Emergency Medical Services through property taxes rather than relying upon a shrinking pool of volunteers. In 2026, those services will cost taxpayers roughly half a million dollars.
According to Tracey Clothier, “Hague’s residents are certainly aware of the aging of the population and would like to foster a more diverse, multi-generation community.”
A public survey, for instance, found that residents’ priorities included addressing the seasonal fluctuations in population and encouraging year-round economic activity – goals which, if achieved, might enhance Hague’s long-term viability.
The greying population notwithstanding, the residents of Hague “love the town. They want to maintain Hague’s small-town character and protect its natural assets. They love living here,” said Clothier.
Clothier said that the new comprehensive plan “establishes goals and policies and sets priorities for public and private investment that will help the town move forward strategically. It’s a road map.”
The citizens’ committee drafting the plan selected ten “signature” projects, each with the potential to enhance the community, to foster and promote. Among them: redeveloping the former site of the Beachside Hotel, better known for its basement bar, the Cave, which flourished in the 1970s and 80s; adding amenities to the town park, such as a performance space; and constructing a free-standing historical museum adjacent to the community center.
“I feel very positive about the future of Hague,” said Clothier. “There is a sufficient number of people who recognize that Hague needs more visitors and more visitor services to be sustainable.”
Given Hague’s small size and lack of obvious commercial attractions, it might do well to partner with nearby communities to create a regional destination that would appeal to a variety of interests and age groups, Clothier said.
“I think Hague has always seen itself as an island, but that is no longer sustainable. People want a deeper, more complex experience than can be found in one small community, and that must be packaged for them. If these communities are to survive, the economic benefits of tourism have to spread from one to another, to be shared,” she said. A public hearing on the Comprehensive plan was scheduled to be held on December 9.
