Hague Hotels

John Wheeler purchased the Trout House property in 1855 and operated the hotel for years as John Wheeler’s Trout House. Lake George Hotels by Betty Ahern Buckle notes that John Wheeler opened his house in the 1860s for 15 summer borders and featured trout dinners for a dollar.

July 7, 1882: A news clipping refers to the hotel’s name as The Trout House. It seems that John Wheeler’s name was dropped from the hotel’s name at some point. Nine borders arrived and all rooms were booked for the month of July.

April-June 1896: The Trout House was enlarged by the proprietor Charles Wheeler, son of John and Ella Wheeler who continued ownership of the hotel.

July 30, 1896: Charles Wheeler, proprietor, had 40 summer guests booked. The family was slowly expanding the capacity of the hotel. The lake’s first tourists were “privileged society” from New York, Albany, and Saratoga. They would take the train to Lake George and then board one of the steamers (Iroquois/Sagamore) to ride down the lake to the steamboat dock at Hague. Each hotel would pick up their guests in horse and buggy at the dock and deliver them to their hotel. The Trout House had a tennis court in front and croquet grounds in the back, and it became famous for its trout dinners. People came from all over the lake to enjoy them.

1900: Richard (known locally as RJ) and his wife, Mame, were brought into an arrangement where RJ would operate the hotel and Mame would take care of John and Ella Wheeler, as they were unable to operate the business because of advancing age and illness. In turn, the Wheelers would leave the hotel to RJ and Mame. It is unclear as to why Charles Wheeler was not the heir and he was still listed as proprietor in 1901 when he was given credit for moving the Trout House landing to the back of the hotel, “greatly improving the front view.” Some accounts explained that RJ was Ella's nephew, which explains the connection, and it would seem that that Ella and Charles Wheeler invited them into this arrangement since they probably could not run the hotel and take care her aging parents. It does look as though Charles and Ella were taking care of financially and with housing after the transfer, and it seems to have been a perfectly agreeable arrangement for all concerned. However, it did get confusing as both John Wheeler and his son Charles were noted as being married to a woman named Ella.

1901: RJ Bolton was the proprietor of the Trout House.

February 1903: Ice races were given by RJ Bolton of the Trout House and Streeter & Waters of the Phoenix Hotel.

March 1907: The ice races were again offered.

July 4, 1909: Colonel and Mrs. William Mann entertained the famous Burgesses Corps of Albany with the fine reception at the Trout House Hotel. The weekend included a march from the dock to the hotel, a drill on the front lawn, and a banquet in their honor on Saturday evening. Sunday morning a military service was held in Hague and Monday evening a reception and dance, complete with the grand march, was held at the headquarters of the court--the Trout House.

July 1916: “RJ Bolton, proprietor of the Trout House, made extensive improvements ($5,000) and added a 14-room annex, grill room, and many private bathrooms. Across the road from the Trout House near the lake, Mr. Bolton erected a fine large garage below his house. It is touted to be a credit to the village, and being a fine garage, all auto parties will find plenty of room to store their cars.” The garage had room for 30 cars and expert mechanics in charge day and night.

December 1918: RJ Bolton purchased the Iroquois hotel from E.T. Wilcox and his wife, Carrie. The Iroquois was next to the Trout House and was to be used as an annex.

May, 1919: The original Trout House burned. The former Iroquois Hotel became the New Trout House to accommodate business as usual for the Boltons, and they immediately began remodeling and adding on more rooms and bathrooms to accommodate up to 100 guests.

1922: The Trout House Casino opens. It housed a pool room, movie theater, bowling alley, and barber shop. RJ also built the Bolton Lodge to house his family. It was built on the south foundation of the old hotel. RJ built the Chateau for Earl and Marge Bolton, which is now incorporated into the Patchett’s lodge as one unit. Earl and Pauline Bolton, son and daughter of RJ and Mame, had to give up their rooms to rent during the summer months as the lodge was rented for overflow for the hotel. The tents in the back were used for the help as well as for Earl and Pauline (this info is from Jim Bolton, son of Earl Bolton).

1930s: The newly renovated and modernized New Trout House enjoyed a clientele that was more sophisticated than the average summer tourist at the time, the hotel life being faster paced and more suited to the younger crowd and the urbanite.

October 6, 1932: The casino was destroyed by fire early Monday morning, as reported by the Ticonderoga Sentinel. Charles Wheeler's house was scorched. The electric lights and telephone wires were burned down so they went to the Indian Kettles to call for the fire truck in Ticonderoga.

After World War II, many middle-class families were able to afford automobiles, and cottages grew in popularity with the next generation of tourists to the lake. RJ responded by building seven cottages (truly primitive bungalows) on the hotel property.

1944: William E. Tallion, associated with the DeWitt Clinton Hotel in Albany, buys the Trout House from RJ Bolton. The sale included the hotel property and all furnishings as well as 217 feet of beachfront. It did not include the cottage or other property adjacent to the hotel, Bolton Lodge for example.

October 3, 1945: Charles Wheeler dies at his home on the property, the Wheeler house. (Another accounts list his death in 1935.)

RJ later turned the casino and the garage over to his son Earl, as proprietor.

1954: RJ Bolton died. 

1955: The Trout House was sold to Roscoe Slack and renamed The Hague townhouse in 1959 when Roscoe slack owned it. He later renamed it the Trout House. 

The property changed hands many times over the next several years. Earl Bolton stayed in Bolton Lodge, which was still owned by the family, but sold the motel and the cottages to Harry Geiser and Fred Ferihan of Ticonderoga.  

1971: Bob and Lyn Patchett became the new owners/proprietors of the Trout House. The resort went through a complete transformation/renovation. Many in Hague still remember the line of toilets, bathtubs, and other bathroom fixtures that lined Route 9N for anyone to take. 

1975: The hotel, which had remained dormant slash vacant for many years, was taken down. The only remnant of the hotel is the lobbyist terrazzo floor, which serves today as the basketball court! The stone fireplace still stands just north of Bob and Lynn Patchett's home, behind the basketball court.

1979: An addition to the Bolton Lodge connected the lodge with the innkeeper's home and is the present day office. The none-bedroom lodge has been wonderfully restored to its lovely Victorian era.

1986: Bob and Lyn Patchett retired, and son Scott and his wife Alice become the next proprietors of the Trout House Village Resort. Several log cabins were built to further expand and improve the resort.

Research by Nancy Watton Scarzello, April 2010

Going Up at the Trout House by Dick Bolton, January 2010

As I think of growing up in a summer resort environment, it certainly brings back many fond memories. Since my grandparents, RJ and Mame Bolton, were owners of the Trout House and surrounding cottages, and my brother jack and I were their adopted children, I was in touch with everything that was involved in running a hotel.

First off, you had to have a general knowledge of plumbing, electrical, and personnel problems. In other words, you had to be a Jack-of-all-trades.

Usually about the first week in May we started opening up the house and the hotel and cottages. That involved painting, cleaning, lawn care, and the hiring of summer employees. We hired approximately 30 people to start the season. Most of the summer employees were from Hague and the surrounding towns. They were hired with room and board and were housed in a large building in back of the hotel where there was also the laundry and the icehouse. Finding a first-class chef was the biggest problem as all the qualified chefs would have been hired by the year-round restaurants. Many times my grandmother, who was an excellent cook, had to go into the kitchen and cook the meals until a replacement could be found. Many times I washed pots and pans to help her out.

A number of the employees we hired, such as head waitress, pastry cook, head chambermaid, general repairman, and lawn maintenance, had been with us for many years so their areas were well covered. They were just like family returning for the summer.

Another big problem in opening up were the leaking pipes and radiators. When the water was turned off during the winter and turned on again in the spring, these leaks developed. It usually took about a week to rectify this problem.

The hotel was supplied with water from our reservoir, which was located at the farm. The reservoir had to be monitored daily. When it ran low, usually in August, we had to pump water from the Hague Brook into the reservoir. We had a guest who came to the hotel every year. I had to take him over to Smith's Flats in West Hague to get water from a boiling spring that was located there and he kept his bottle of water at his dining room table where he could drink it daily. He claimed that this water kept him living for another year!

The season generally started about the middle of June and lasted until Labor Day. There were slow periods between these dates but it also depended on the weather and holidays.

When the first guest arrived, we had to be ready. They usually arrived by train, car, bus, or boat. They were greeted by a bellhop who helped them with their luggage and then to the front desk where they checked in. Their choice of stay was either on the American plan which included meals or the European plan which is was rooms only. Rooms alone ranged from $8 to $12 a night, depending on what floor your room was on. The hotel had 50 rooms and three stories. The rooms were less expensive on the upper floors. All rooms were equipped with sinks. Some rooms had bath facilities and others had a connecting bath for two rooms. All floors had a shower, tub, and toilet facilities.

After check-in, they came to the dining area where they were assigned to a table for the duration of their stay. After dinner, there were a number of activities they could enjoy. We had bingo, movies, card games, and a casino across the street for their dancing pleasure. There were also two drugstores (owned by Byron Marshall and Carrie Wilcox) within walking distance to meet their needs. During the day we had row boats, canoes, tours of the lake by motorboat, tennis courts, horseback riding, trails up Swede Mountain or Black Mountain, a local golf course, and a fishing boat, run by Leon Wells, that would take guests lake trout fishing.

My full-time job started when I was 12 years old. I had to keep the boats clean and tidy up the beach and docks. The next year I was promoted to dishwasher and chef’s helper. My 14th and 15th year I was the helper on our delivery truck, which included filling the ice boxes in the hotel and cottages. We also took all the waste to our landfill at the farm. We returned from the farm with fresh vegetables and milk that were produced at our farm. We usually made this trip twice a day.

Since we didn’t have electric refrigeration, all the coolers in the hotel and cottages had to be cooled by ice, which was stored in our icehouse. Our icehouse held approximately 1,500 cakes of ice and lasted the entire summer. The ice was harvested from Lake George and was insulated with sawdust that we got from the local sawmills.

My 16th year at the hotel was the best. I got my drivers’ license and I was “top dawg” driving service vehicles. This meant also that I was able to pick up guests at the train station, take people to visit the Fort, and drive around town to do the chores. In between times, there were always emergencies that I was called to do, such as fixing a leaking faucet, fixing the dishwasher, delivering ice to a guest, or retrieving a boat that had broken loose from the dock and was in the middle of the lake.

The next 2 1/2 years I was in the service; I was discharged July 5, 1946. When I came home, I filled in whenever they needed me. The last years in the hotel I was married; my wife, Penny, worked in the office and dining room, and I worked as a bartender. There's a lot more I could tell you about growing up in a hotel but I will close by saying that my grandparents were the best parents that a person could ever have. They were both understanding and helped me in so many ways. I LOVED THEM BOTH.