Minora mansion on East Terrace, Adelaide city, home from 1882 of social establishment couple Harry and Ada Ayers
The South Australian state-heritage-llsted Dimora mansion, at 120–24 East Terrace, Adelaide city, was built in 1882 for Harry and Ada Ayers (at right), both born into the 19th Century Adelaide social establishment as the children of Henry Ayers and John Morphett.
Images courtesy City of Adelaide and State Library of South Australia
Dimora mansion, at 120–24 East Terrace, Adelaide city, was built in 1882 for Harry Lockett Ayers, a son of Henry Ayers, the wealthy Burra Burra copper mining chief and later five-times premier of South Australia during its parliament’s turbulent 1860s and 1870s.
Harry Ayers and his brother, Arthur Ernest Ayers, were born into Adelaide’s social and financial elite. Educated at St Peter's College, Harry and Arthur carried on their father's business as H.L. & A.E. Ayers.
Harry Ayers was a founding member in 1863 of the exclusive men’s Adelaide Club, part of a wider network of high-profile social clubs, and a member of the Adelaide Hunt Club. Harry entrenched his place in the Adelaide social establishment, in 1866, by marrying Ada Fisher Morphett, daughter of prolific landowner, politician and freemason John Morphett.
In 1867, Ayers bought East Terrace land that extended about 150 metres back to Hutt Street. Harry and Ada Ayers lived at Bray House on the property before it was subdivided in 1878. The western half of the property towards Hutt Street (including Bray House) was bought by legal practitioner and politician (South Australian premier 1881-84) John Bray.
To build a grand residence facing East Terrace on his part of the property, Ayers commissioned architect and surveyor William McMinn, who’d previously designed Adelaide University’s first building in 1877 with partner Edward John Woods. McMinn also designed mansions such as Mount Breckan (Victor Harbor), Marble Hill, the vice-regal residence above Norton Summi; Montefiore in Palmer Place, North Adelaide, and the residence for Frederic Ayers at 21-25 Lefevre Terrace, North Adelaide, with E.J. Woods. He also was also connected with the design of the supreme court, Crown & Sceptre Hotel and the terrace of shops and dwellings for the South Australian Company in Rundle Street, Adelaide city.
McMinn’s design for the Harry and Ada Ayers home, completed in 1882, was a grand manor of 20 rooms and a ballroom with high ceilings, bay windows and ornate fixtures characteristic of the late Victorian era, The external aspect features stuccoed, rendered walls, contrasting a cast-iron verandah frame – all notable qualities of McMinn’s designs.
After her husband died in 1905, Ada Ayers added her own touch to Adelaide’s design legacy. As a memorial to both Harry and the six children tthey had lost at a young age to illness (mainly tuberculosis), she commissioned two stained-glass windows to be made by United States of America-based Tiffany Studios in 1909, for St Paul’s Church on Pulteney Street, Adelaide, The Angel of Faith window was dedicated to Harry and the River of Life to the children. When the church was decommissioned in the 1980s, the windows were moved to several different locations and later donated to the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Dimora remained in the Ayers family until 1940 and was later renovated and subdivided for different occupants. Despite all the works, the fittings and detailing of the original interior and exterior were preserved.
