Local residents in the Neversink valley created their own entertainment through square dances with fiddlers, the Neversink Brass Band, and the local ball team, the Farmers A & C. Students attended school through the 8th grade at a two-room school in Neversink and a one-room schoolhouse in Bittersweet. Local businesses supported farms and lodging places, including Ross Tompkin's Store for groceries and dry goods and Bill's Casino for ice cream, bowling, or a haircut. The Methodist Church, first built in the 1840s, was a center for religious activities. The Rondout and Neversink Reservoirs and the tunnel connecting them were constructed in the 1940s and '50s, with work suspended during much of World War II; the reservoirs became operational in 1950 and '54, respectively. During construction of the reservoirs and the Neversink Tunnel, the Grahamsville area boomed as hundreds of workers lived or did business there.