its organic law, or it would have to discharge a large number of members to save on expenses. Expansion at the four original branches proceeded more slowly after 1884. The 1884 Board of Surgeons Report recommended that the Central Branch was already too large and should not be expanded; the severe climate at the Eastern and Northwestern branches should limit their growth; and the Southern branch should not be allowed to grow to more than 1500–2000 members. The surgeons suggested that new branches were a better solution than enlarging the older ones. They also recommended that certain diseases would benefit from treatment at the various branches. The establishment of new branches in the west and on the Pacific coast limited the expansion of the older branches. In September 1884, the Board selected Leavenworth, Kansas, as a new location, contingent on the city donating a tract of and $50,000 to provide for "ornamentation"; the city accepted in April 1885. At the same meeting, the Board took under consideration the establishment of a Pacific Branch; it opened in Santa Monica, California in January 1888. Even with the creation of two new branches, the Board realized that membership would continue to increase; it proposed four alternatives to manage the needs. Additional branches could be established; existing branches could be enlarged; states could be encouraged to erect state soldiers' homes through partial funding from the Federal government; and financial relief to veterans outside the Home system could be increased. Congress established a new Home branch in Grant County, Indiana, on March 23, 1888, with an initial appropriation of $200,000, based on the county residents' providing natural gas supply sufficient for the heating and lighting of the facility. The site selected was near Marion, Indiana, and the new facility was called the Marion Branch. The Marion Branch was the seventh of ten homes and one sanatorium that were built between 1867 and 1902. These homes were primarily intended to provide shelter for the veterans. The homes gradually developed as complete planned communities, with kitchens, gardens and facilities for livestock, designed to be nearly self-sufficient. It appears that these homes were the first non-religious planned communities in the country. Additionally, Congress passed legislation to provide $100 annually for every veteran eligible for the National Home who was housed in a state soldiers' home. In 1895, the Indiana legislature authorized the establishment of a state soldiers’ home,