A 2019 review of the history is more specific: “in its heyday, as many as 500 resorts catered to guests of various incomes”. These resorts, and also the Borscht Belt bungalow colonies, were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through summer borscht 1960s. In the 1920s and into the 1930s, some hotels and resorts’ advertisements refused to accept Jews and indicated “No Hebrews or Consumptives” in their ads. This issue led to a need for alternatives that would readily accept Jewish families as guests.
One report states that the larger hotels provided “Friday night and holiday services as well as kosher cooking”. Johnathan Sarna, “one has to understand hunger. Immigrants had memories of hunger, and in the Catskills, the food seemed limitless”. One book about the era said that the Catskills “became one great marriage broker”. The Overlook, which offered entertainment and rooms, as well as bungalows, was operated by the Schrier family. The Granit Hotel and Country Club, located in Kerhonkson, boasted many amenities, including a golf course.
It closed in 2015, and was renovated and turned into the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa, which closed in 2018. The property was sold in May 2019 to Hudson Valley Holding Co. The company did not announce its plans for the hotel. According to Time, “the Borscht Belt resorts reached their peak in the 1950s and 60s, accommodating up to 150,000 guests a year” but the start of a decline was apparent by the late 1960s. Railways began cutting service to the area, the popularity of air travel increased, and a younger generation of Jewish-Americans chose other leisure destinations. Access to the area improved with the opening of the George Washington Bridge and upgrade of old travel routes such as old New York State Route 17.
According to a recent source, by the early 1960s, some 25 to 30 percent of Grossinger’s visitors were not Jewish. A Times of Israel article specifies that “the bungalow colonies were the first to go under, followed by the smaller hotels. The glitziest ones hung on the longest” with some continuing to operate in the 1980s and even in the 1990s. In 1987, New York’s mayor Ed Koch proposed buying the Gibber Hotel in Kiamesha Lake to house the homeless. The idea was opposed by local officials.
The hotel instead became the religious school Yeshiva Viznitz. The Heiden Hotel in South Fallsburg, which was the location of the movie Sweet Lorraine starring Maureen Stapleton, was destroyed by fire in May 2008. The Stevensville Hotel in Swan Lake, owned by the family of accused Bernard Madoff accomplice David G. Friehling, reopened as the Swan Lake Resort Hotel. The former Homowack Lodge in Phillipsport was converted into a summer camp for Hasidic girls.
Officials of the state Department of Health ordered the property evacuated in July 2009, citing health and safety violations. Many Buddhist and Hindu retreat centers have been constructed on the land or in the restored buildings of former camps or resorts to serve adherents in New York City, the establishment of which has then drawn even more temples and centers to the area. This led to the coining of the nickname ‘Buddha Belt’, ‘Bhajan Belt’, or ‘Buddhist Belt’ to refer to the area’s revival. The Flagler Hotel, Nemerson, Schenk’s and Windsor Hotels in South Fallsburg, and the Stevensville Hotel in Swan Lake, were converted into Jewish religious summer camps. Grossinger’s complex partially was demolished in 2018 and a new owner planned to build a hotel, homes and other amenities. A remaining structure on the property was destroyed by fire in August 2022. The former Gilbert’s Hotel and Brickman Hotel are not part of the Siddha Yoga SYDA complex.
A gift shop remains open at the sites, which are not in current active use. The original Kutcher’s nightclub is all that remains of the original hotel. The Kutcher’s Hotel front electric sign was donated to the Sullivan County Historical Museum. The Pines Hotel golf course was converted into a Jewish religious housing site.