Melrose is owned by the National Park Service. It was built by John McMurran who was a man on the rise when he moved from Pennsylvania to Natchez in the mid 1820s. He established a profitable law practice, won a seat in the Mississipi legislature, married into a respected local family, and acquired the first of five cotton plantations he would ultimately come to own. By 1841 he had amassed such and immense fortune from his slavery fuelled cotton empire that he purchased 132 acres of land on the outskirts of Natchez on which to construct a country estate befitting a man of his status. Over the next eight years a labour force of free whites and enslaved blacks (which McMurran owned in abundance) toiled on the buildings of the estate until finally in 1849, John, his wife, and their two children moved into their significant new home.
It was acquired by the National Park Service in 1990 because of it having been preserved in its original state (with all the furnishings) and with all the slave quarters. There were about 25 slaves who maintained the property whether the family were there or not.
There was an excellent tour with a Park Ranger. She commented that in Natchez in the 19th century about 200 people a year died of Yellow Fever. It was not until 1914 during the construction of the Panama Canal that it was recognised that Yellow Fever was transmitted by mosquitos.
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