The family sitting room was at the centre of family domestic life. After dinner, the ladies of the house would sew, play music or simply sit and talk in the room, while the men might indulge in port and cigars in the nearby library.
The sitting room was designed with a secondary function in mind. Built with sliding doors at either side, the sitting room could be opened up to form one large entertaining area joining the ballroom with the family room.
Ayers House is named after Sir Henry Ayers who lived in the house during the latter half of the 19th Century. Sir Henry Ayers was a distinguished politician and financier, who became Premier of South Australia seven times during the nineteenth century.
Constructed of local bluestone, the house is attributed to the work of colonial architect Sir George Strickland Kingston. Built on the site of a small cottage, the house evolved in several stages from a nine-roomed brick house built by William Paxton, a chemist and early Adelaide entrepreneur who returned to England in 1855.
Ayers House Museum, as it is now called, reflects Sir Henry Ayers' status and wealth as a result of his business and political career in the colonial society of 19th century South Australia.
Sir Henry Ayers was influenced by Robert Kerr's publication of the 1860s, The English Gentleman's House. Kerr advised a distinct division between family and servant sections, with separate access to both. This is reflected in the layout of Ayers House, although servants must have serviced the upstairs rooms via the grand staircase.
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