Ropsley was designed in 1916 as a small country estate for Mr. and Mrs. Francis S. McIlhenny by Philadelphia Architects, Mellor, Meigs and Howe. Ropsley is a bucolic, sheltered, village-like retreat walled in from the street and perched at the edge of a deep ravine supporting a mature upland forest. It was also supported by a large staff of servants and gardeners with a service wing to house them. The house is graced with gardens, parterres of lawn and a number of large scale, rather quixotic statuary designed as fountains to spout water into their own separate basins set in odd corners of the gardens. These elements gave a quiet intimate scale to the house and its gardens.

After the original Owners, the property fell into sharp eclipse with makeshift additions and poorly conceived alterations added by a succession of subsequent Owners.