For sale, on and off, for 17 years, one of Sedgefield’s most extraordinary homes has been sold. Ayershire, the 1935 mansion at 3215 N. Rockingham Road, had been in the family of textile executive Nathan and Martha Adams Ayers since it was built.
The price was $2.8 million. That figure works out to $212 per square foot, far less than the price of many relatively ordinary houses these days. But there just aren’t many buyers looking for 13,000 square-foot mansions. The buyers in this case live a half-mile away in Sedgefield, so we can hope that they appreciate its value and that Ayershire won’t meet the same fate as two similarly impressive multi-million dollar mansions — Adamsleigh in Sedgefield and the J. Spencer Love House in Greensboro — that were bought in recent years and then torn down by owners with more arrogance than sense.
Ayershire consists of 5.5 acres on three lots with two undeveloped lots on either side of the house’s 2.91 acres. It’s located on the first hole of Sedgefield’s Donald Ross-designed course.
The interior features butterfly pegged floors, wood and plaster moldings, leaded glass windows, solid wood beams, coffered ceilings and a marble wall fountain. A porte-cochere connects the house to its garages, two-bedroom guest quarters and herb garden.
The house was built by Nathan McNeill Ayers (1908-1996) and Martha Ellen “Nell” Adams Ayers (1909-1967). It was designed by Nathan’s brother Sanford McNeill Ayers (1906-1959), a prominent Atlanta architect.
A 2011 article in O.Henry magazine details Ayershire’s interior design and the extravagant sourcing of its reclaimed stone and wooden beams, which came from an 18th-century grist mill in Stanly County. Nell’s father bought the mill and had its stone and beams brought to Sedgefield for the house.
Nathan was born in Georgia and graduated from Georgia Tech. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After starting his career with hosiery manufacturer Adams-Millis Corporation (run by his father-in-law), he was chairman of Highland Yarn Mills of High Point, a director of National Association of Manufacturers and chairman of National Association of Hosiery Manufacturers. He also served as master of the Sedgefield Hunt and president of the Sedgefield Horse Show.
Nell was the daughter of John Hampton Adams, a founder of Adams-Millis. She grew up in what is now the J.H. Adams Inn on North Main Street in High Point.
Ownership passed to their son Jere Adams Ayers (1942-2025), who died in February, and daughter-in-law Elsa G. Ayers. Jere also was a businessman, serving as executive vice president and treasurer of Highland Yarn Mills and as an executive with a variety of other firms. He also served as president of the Children’s Home Society of Greensboro.
3215 N. Rockingham Road, Sedgefield, Guilford County
Ayrshire
Listing withdrawn October 9, 2011, relisted March 24, 2012
Listing withdrawn March 29, 2012; relisted March 5, 2015
Listing withdrawn April 9, 2015; relisted December 1, 2015
Listing withdrawn January 22, 2021; relisted December 2, 2024
Sale pending (!), January 14, 2025
- $2,807,990 (originally $3.75 million)
- 4 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, 13,218 square feet (per county), 5.50 acres
- Price/square foot: $227
- Built in 1935
- Listed August 22, 2008 (about a month before the market crashed)
- Last sale: The house had never been sold.
- Neighborhood: Sedgefield
- Note: Oddly, the deed is dated March 3 but wasn’t filed with the Register of Deeds until six weeks later, April 14.
- Online listings showed only 8,415 square feet.
- N.C. Department of Cultural Resources (1991): “The Nathan Ayers House, ‘Ayershire’ is a large brick Tudor Revival house with two-story servants wing … designed by Sanford McNeil Ayers, Nathan Ayers’s brother. Sanford Ayers was a prominent architect in Atlanta who designed several cathedrals, including the Catholic Cathedral in Atlanta. (A third Ayers brother, Richard, was also an architect; he designed the new barn at Sedgefield Stables.)”
- Photos from earlier listings:
Piedmont Historic Homes 