Established by congressional legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1865, the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center was one of the three original VA hospitals in the United States and received its first Civil War veterans in 1867. Although officially The Central Branch of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, it became known as Dayton Soldiers Home. By 1884, it was a self-sufficient planned community with a hospital, living quarters, gardens, and amenities, providing for 64 percent of the veterans receiving institutional care from the U.S. government. An early tourist attraction, the campus drew 517,106 visitors in 1906. Today it is a modern healthcare facility that continues to honor President Lincoln's promise "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan."