The Burlington County Railroad completed its line to Pemberton in 1861, and the railroad greatly influenced the village of Smithville by providing access to Philadelphia in an hour and connections to Boston and Washington, D.C., within a day. The Smithville railroad station stood nearly a half-mile below the creek and the main section of the village, and the Jacksonville-Vincentown Road crossed the tracks nearby to connect the station with the upper village. North of the station along the main road toward the upper village stood a large grove of hardwood trees known as Smith’s Forest, beginning about two hundred yards to the east. Consisting mainly of mature beech trees over about forty acres on the dry upland south of Rancocas Creek, the forest served workers as one of the village’s main recreation areas. Residents took walks and drives among the trees, making it more of a pleasure park than anything else, and during the summer it provided a pleasant refuge frequented by local villagers and groups from Mount Holly. Smith charged no admission, and picnics and dances were often held there. The station building seen about 1900 had been built in 1884 to replace an earlier structure.