African House, a hut-like building at Melrose, was constructed by skilled slaves in the 1820s. They dug clay, shaped it into molds, and fired it to make bricks for the first floor, while the second floor was built of carefully hand-hewn cedar logs dovetailed without nails. The building is crowned by a hip roof of cedar cypress shingles with a 12-foot overhang. Although its materials and techniques resemble French-style construction, its architecture is reminiscent of a sub-Saharan African building. Records show that it was known by several different names, including Casa Barn, before receiving the permanent name African House in 1941, when a team from the Historic American Buildings Survey came to document it and writer and long-time resident Francois Mignon supplied that name. The second floor contains nine murals by folk artist Clementine Hunter depicting the early 20th century landscape and daily life at Melrose. Encouraged by Francois Mignon, Hunter painted the series in 1955 after already spending 15 years creating thousands of paintings while working at Melrose as a farm-hand, maid, and cook. Among the most famous of her works, the murals drew on her memory to show a baptism, funeral, wedding, church revival, and cotton picking.