The Mansion House was considered the finest hotel of its day. On August 22, 1861, Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, visited Long Branch and stayed there. Former Governor William A. Newell arranged a dramatic ocean rescue demonstration by the Life-Saving Service, later the Coast Guard, for her, and that night a Grand Hop was held at the hotel in her honor. Her visit drew the nation's attention to the city as a fashionable resort during the Gilded Age. President Ulysses S. Grant was also a guest there. The hotel burned in 1884, was rebuilt, and was torn down in 1910 to make way for a new pier.