Community Profile

by Raines Cohen, CohoUS Seniors in Cohousing committee

As senior cohousing neighborhoods take shape around the country, let’s take a peek at one established this year: Hager Homestead, the first in New England.

Hager Homestead logo

This “55+” community, with many members moved in and one home left to sell, is in Littleton, Massachusetts, 25 miles northwest of Boston, near the Route 495 outer beltway, quite close to New Hampshire, with a commuter rail stop just a 2-mile bus or bike ride away. The group, developing its property on the 15-acre site of a former dairy, was originally named Middlesex Senior Cohousing, after the county it calls home.

Puzzling Evidence of having fun at Hager Homestead

While the founding homesteaders (including a couple inspired by seeing cohousing in Denmark while living there) are from their 50s to early 80s, they are hardly retired: about half are working full- or half-time. Their interests include hiking, rowing, biking, swimming, kayaking, flower and vegetable gardening, quilting, knitting, rug hooking, playing classical music (flute, harp, piano), choral singing, contra-dancing, crafts, cooking, pottery making, yoga, meditation, and restoring vintage cars, scooters, and motorcycles.

The 26-home community set out a strong, clear set of values (right) that encompass their purpose in building community: more than just a place to live, more than just the physical design aspects of “aging in place” (although all units include that element, with single-floor one- and two-bedroom options).

Hager’s site is one that integrates with nearby civic amenities and businesses while supplying room to roam, paths within the community and clear views out to a large meadow and regional walking/bike paths.

While most of the construction is new-build, some homes are in a restored and deeply renewed historic structure, and the common house is in a renovated 1990s house.

Like many recent projects, the community ran into supply-chain challenges during construction, with some move-ins delayed for months as they waited for electrical equipment necessary for occupancy. Initial plans called for a Fall 2022 move-in, but some folks in one building added nearly two years to that schedule.

The group didn’t go it alone; its professional partners include developer Matthew Blackham of the Blackham Company; development consultants Kathryn McCamant of Cohousing Solutions and Laura Fitch of Fitch Architecture & Community Design; and architect, Sheldon Pennoyer.

Like most US cohousing neighborhoods, the community is legally condominiums, for best member access to mortgage financing. It uses Sociocracy (Dynamic Governance) as its decision-making model.

Learn more about the community on its website: www.HagerHomestead.org.

If you’ve got ideas or relevant experience you’d like to share, join us at the next Seniors in Cohousing Q&A gathering, the 20th of every month (10 a.m. MT), from your home via Zoom. I look forward to seeing you there.

Cohousing coach Raines Cohen, a member of the CohoUS Seniors in Cohousing committee, lives
with his wife Betsy Morris at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing. He’s a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Certified Sage-ing Leader (CSL) and has trained communities in the Successful Aging (Study Group 1) senior cohousing curriculum. You can reach him via his Aging in Community website.