An 1815 portrait of William Kirkland hangs in the formal dining room of Ayr Mount, Kirkland’s estate. photograph by Lissa Gotwals
For 15 years, the Scottish immigrant merchant William Kirkland; his wife, Margaret; and their 14 children watched as their dream home took shape. They could see the progression of the Ayr Mount Estate through the windows of a small house on the same Hillsborough property. Construction had begun in 1799, funded by the success of Kirkland’s nearby general store. The estate, named for his Scottish hometown, Ayrshire, was among the region’s first sizable brick residences.
Joseph Beatty, a local historian who studies Ayr Mount’s significance, explains why the locations of Kirkland’s general store and estate were a strategic choice: They were both stops on the Great Trading Path, — aka “the superhighway of the time,” Beatty says. Originally forged by Native Americans, the path connected the Chesapeake Bay area to Indigenous settlements across the Carolinas and Georgia. “Hillsborough was considered the capital of the backcountry,” Beatty says. “You could step down here and get just about everywhere.”
The fingerprints of enslaved people, who made all of the home’s bricks, are still visible. photograph by Lissa Gotwals
Kirkland’s store stocked goods like coffee, rum, and hardware. But it was demand for his high-end supplies, like silver and fine china, that funded Ayr Mount’s striking features: three stories, 13-foot ceilings, and elaborate woodwork and plaster details. When it was eventually completed around 1815, the Federal-style masterpiece was hailed as one of the Piedmont’s finest homes.
Today, public tours of Ayr Mount shed light on the enslaved craftspeople who, by hand, formed and fired each of the property’s several hundred thousand bricks. As tour guide Angie Kelly walks with visitors around to the back of the house, she reveals the makers’ fingerprints on a few of those exterior bricks. Moving inside the home, she encourages people to step into footprint indentations in the hardwood floor. The grooves were worn down by years of enslaved housekeepers’ steps from the detached kitchen to the “warming room,” where food was kept by the fire until it was served in the dining room.
On her tours, Kelly calls guests’ attention to the Empire- and Federal-style furniture, which was used by the four Kirkland generations who lived in the house from 1815 until 1985. Much like the goods that changed hands on the property’s trading route, Ayr Mount passed from one generation to the next until 1985, when the widow of Sam Kirkland sold the home to Richard H. Jenrette. A North Carolina native, Jenrette recognized the value of historic preservation and restored the home to its original grandeur. He then created the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, to which he gifted Ayr Mount and all of its surrounding property.
The estate “is a narrative of our state’s early history,” Beatty says. “On the property, we have archaeological evidence of Native people, and Kirkland himself represents the immigrant experience.”
Even the name Ayr Mount points to new beginnings. “Instead of naming it Ayrshire, like we see in lots of instances, [Kirkland] incorporated its position on the promontory of the Eno River [into the name]. It’s his little mount — a nod to the past while acknowledging the start of something new.”
Ayr Mount
376 Saint Mary’s Road
Hillsborough, NC 27278
classicalamericanhomes.org/sites/ayr-mount
Mark our words: Whether they nod to North Carolina or were penned by its residents, these notable, quotable passages remind us of the power of speech inspired by our state.
When one stream flows into another, the two chart a new course for the future — together.
When the weather outside is frightful, one chef serves loved ones dishes so delightful.
A historic Rose Bowl pitted Duke University against Oregon State in Durham. Then, in the dark days of World War II, those same football players — and a legendary coach — joined forces to fight for freedom.
