The original Rozelle mansion house was commissioned by Robert Hamilton in the classical style of Robert Adam and was finished in 1760. Hamilton had built his fortune in the West Indies. The House was remodeled and extended by David Bryce in the early nineteenth century. The Rozelle Estate flourished throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but by the 1960s times were hard. Therefore, in 1968 the House, with none of its historic interior remaining and with much depleted lands, was gifted to the Royal Burgh of Ayr leading to its status today as South Ayrshire Council's principal Museum and Art Gallery. In 1975–1976 the servants' quarters and stable block were converted into the Maclaurin Art Gallery with funds from the bequest of Mrs Mary Ellen Maclaurin.