{"nrhp_refnum":"85000076","name":"Cumberland Valley State Normal School Historic District","other_names":["Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by N. Prince St., Stewart, Old Main, Gilbert and Henderson Drs.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Shippensburg","county":"Cumberland County","state":"PA","lat":40.058932509000044,"lon":-77.5225038101263,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-01-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seven-acre irregularly shaped historic district in Shippensburg Township, north of the Borough of Shippensburg, in the southwest part of the Shippensburg University campus. It contains five buildings erected between 1870 and 1915 for the Cumberland Valley State Normal School: Old Main, the gymnasium now Stewart Hall, the women's dormitory now Horton Hall, the principal's residence now the Martin House, and the Model School now Gilbert Hall.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the group is the only state normal school campus in Pennsylvania that retains all its major structures in the physical and visual setting of the end of the stockholder phase of the state's teacher-training system, which lasted from 1857 to the World War One era. Old Main, designed by Samuel Sloan, is central to that story because its costly construction and financial problems contributed to the troubles of the system. The campus buildings are also presented as an intact record of the school's relations with the local community and the seven-county district it served.","narrative":"Seven acres on a rise above Shippensburg hold five buildings put up between 1870 and 1915 for the Cumberland Valley State Normal School. Samuel Sloan designed the central Old Main in 1870 in the Second Empire style; it opened in 1873 and was reworked in 1895 by Harry E. Yessler, who replaced its Mansard roof with a steep Classical Revival gable roof and raised the tower. Arthur P. Rosser designed the Romanesque Revival gymnasium, now Stewart Hall, completed in 1895. Horton Hall, a Romanesque Revival women's dormitory, was begun by Rosser and finished by Yessler after Rosser's death in 1894, and it opened in 1899. Maurice R. Rhoads designed the Classical Revival principal's residence, now the Martin House, and the Renaissance Revival Model School, now Gilbert Hall. The buildings matter because they preserve, in their original setting, the campus of the stockholder phase of Pennsylvania's state normal school system, which ran from 1857 until about 1917. Old Main's financial troubles, including an 1887 sheriff's sale, were central to that system's decline.","period_of_significance":"1870-1915","architect_builder":"Samuel Sloan, Arthur P. Rosser, Harry E. Yessler, Maurice R. Rhoads","architectural_style":"Second Empire and Classical Revival (Old Main); Romanesque Revival (Stewart Hall and Horton Hall); Classical Revival (Martin House); Renaissance Revival (Gilbert Hall)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Old Main serves as an administrative building and was undergoing a major renovation in the 1983-84 period described; Stewart Hall is an administrative and classroom complex; Horton Hall is an administrative and service building.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.420827-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85000076.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000076/a09c31d169-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000076/a09c31d169-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Cgboeree at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shipoldmain.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Cgboeree at English Wikipedia</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shipoldmain.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998155","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shippensburg_University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7498066"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/cumberland-county/cumberland-valley-state-normal-school-historic-district-85000076/"}