From 1923 to 1945, High Point State Park was governed by the High Point Park Commission, whose wealthy and influential businessmen and women managed and advocated for the park and its funding. The commission was forced to disband in 1945, and in the years that followed statewide budget priorities shifted. In 1969, the park offices were moved from the mansion to the building they occupy today, while the Kuser Mansion continued to be used for lodging and events on a limited basis. In 1977, after 54 years of continuous public use, the Kuser Mansion was closed because of deteriorated and unsafe conditions and excessive maintenance costs, and plans for its demolition were proposed two years later. Public outcry stopped the planned demolition, but after nearly twenty years of controversy and debate, the building that had begun as a sprawling rustic inn in the summer of 1890 was demolished in the summer of 1996. The Kusers' legacy of philanthropy lives on in more than 15,000 acres of preserved public land benefiting people, plants, and wildlife, and in the 220-foot-high monument on the summit of Kittatinny Mountain honoring New Jersey's veterans.