From the 1920s through the early 1970s, the Borscht Belt was the preeminent summer resort destination for hundreds of thousands of predominantly East Coast American Jews, created by Jewish entrepreneurs after exclusion from existing establishments in the 1920s led to the development of more than 500 resorts, 50,000 bungalows, and 1,000 rooming houses in Sullivan County and parts of Ulster County. Swan Lake, originally Stevensville, grew around a tannery and later featured small Silver Age hotels around the turn of the century before becoming one of the Borscht Belt's most iconic vacation areas during its Golden Age from the 1920s to the 1970s, with many properties built by Jewish proprietors Henry Siegel and Jacob Kretchmer. Around that time, Alden Swan purchased the lake, several hotels, and a bustling casino there. The Stevensville Lake Hotel, constructed in 1924 and later operated for many years by the Dinnerstein and Friehling families, became Swan Lake's best-known resort and expanded considerably through the 1980s. Nearby were the Commodore, the Levine family's Swan Lake Hotel on a hill overlooking the lake, and the President, run by the Bant and Ehrenreich families, along with as many as 30 other small hotels such as Fieldstone Kramer's, while Swan Lake was also home to 42 bungalow colonies. The Borscht Belt gave working and vacationing Jews a sense of community and strongly influenced American culture, especially entertainment, music, and sports, before beginning a gradual decline around 1960 because of factors including the growth of suburbia, inexpensive airfare, and generational changes.