Shippensburg University, founded as the Cumberland Valley State Normal School in 1871, was built along the Cumberland Valley line and depended on the railroad for daily campus life, including deliveries of coal, mail, and food as well as transportation for faculty, staff, and commuting students. The Cumberland Valley Railroad shaped the school's routines, as shown by Principal B.S. Potter signing for a $50 Adams Express Company delivery in 1881, an 1888 bill paid by trustee John A. McCune for supplies such as sugar, salt, molasses, and pickles, and an 1894 anthracite shipment from the Lykens Valley Coal Company in Dauphin County to heat buildings before a steam plant was built along the tracks in 1898, when coal had to be hauled up the hill to Old Main. Normal Station, built in 1873 down the hill from Old Main, served as the main entrance to campus until its demolition in 1930 and functioned as a center for commuters such as Elizabeth Zeigler of Carlisle, who used the railroad in 1927. Before automobile travel became common, the railroad also carried much of the college's off-campus travel, including a trip to Clarion associated with Ralph Heiges, president of Shippensburg State College from 1956-1970, and a student field trip to Washington, D.C. in May 1913.