diff --git a/tljh/installer.py b/tljh/installer.py
index 42ba070..7e9948d 100644
--- a/tljh/installer.py
+++ b/tljh/installer.py
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ def ensure_jupyterhub_package(prefix):
     conda.ensure_pip_packages(
         prefix,
         [
+            "SQLAlchemy<2.0.0",
             "jupyterhub==1.*",
             "jupyterhub-systemdspawner==0.16.*",
             "jupyterhub-firstuseauthenticator==1.*",
diff --git a/tljh/requirements-base.txt b/tljh/requirements-base.txt
index 02df904..1985db7 100644
--- a/tljh/requirements-base.txt
+++ b/tljh/requirements-base.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 #          the requirements-txt-fixer pre-commit hook that sorted them and made
 #          our integration tests fail.
 #
+# For JupyterHub 1.x SQLAlchemy below 2.0.0
+SQLAlchemy<2.0.0
 # JupyterHub + notebook package are base requirements for user environment
 jupyterhub==1.*
 notebook==6.*