Located on a high ridge south of the Gloucester County seat, Airville is endowed with particular architectural quality. The original section is a traditional gambrel-roofed dwelling built perhaps as early as 1747 by the Dixon family. In 1827 the property was bought by Thomas Smith, a highly successful merchant and General Assembly delegate, who had business interests stretching to New York, London, and the West Indies. Smith began building the main, two-story section in 1836. Completed in 1840, four months before his death, the result is a finely-crafted specimen of late Federal architecture. Smith’s brother, who put Airville up for sale, advertised it as a “Dwelling house of ample dimensions, finished in the neatest manner, and of the very best materials. . . fitted up with handsome Marble Mantles, and a circular Staircase of Mahogany.” The Airville estate has an outstanding complex of early outbuildings, including an icehouse and dairy, both with conical roofs.