Melrose Plantation, Historic plantation in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.

Melrose Plantation is a historic plantation in Natchitoches Parish comprising nine buildings arranged across the grounds. The structures include the main residence, the African House with its distinctive umbrella-shaped roof, the Yucca House, and additional outbuildings situated among landscaped gardens.

In 1796 a core tract of 911 acres was granted to Louis Metoyer, son of the formerly enslaved Marie Thérèse Coincoin and Claude Thomas Pierre Métoyer. Louis began the "Big House" about 1832; after his death on 11 March 1832 his son Jean Baptiste Louis Metoyer completed it in 1833. Debt forced an 1847 auction, when the Hertzog brothers bought the plantation for $8,340 and ran it as a cotton operation until 1880.

The name Melrose was given by the Hertzog and Bossier families, who ran a cotton plantation here from 1847 until 1880; the earlier name Yucca Plantation is a 20th-century invention with no documentary support. The Association for Preservation of Historic Natchitoches now owns the site and leads guided tours through the Big House and outbuildings.

The site is best explored through guided tours offered Wednesday through Sunday, with knowledgeable guides leading visitors through the different buildings and their stories. It helps to budget enough time for each building and to view the artworks displayed indoors.

The Africa House, a nearly square structure with an umbrella-like roof overhanging the walls by about ten feet on all four sides, was long presented as directly African in origin. A 2002 study of Creole building practices found its design and techniques resemble French rural structures of the period, and no evidence of African traditions in the architecture was found.