The streets (Melrose and Melrose Place) take their names from Melrose, an estate of two hundred acres and a mansion. The house was built by James J. Craig in 1858 and named Lucknow, in honor of the defense of the Indian town by the British during the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. Craig never lived in the house. He sold it in 1860 to Samuel N. Fain and William H. Moffett. In 1862 Fain sold the house to Thomas J. Powell. It stood between enemy lines during the Civil War, and both Union and Confederate soldiers died in the house. Powell sold the house and the two hundred acres to Oliver Perry Temple in 1865. Temple renamed the house Melrose after Melrose Abbey in Scotland, where his wife Caledonia’s mother (Mrs. David Hume) spent her childhood.
Temple had a vineyard of an acre on the grounds of Melrose that, in season, produced eight barrels a day. Part of the Concord and Catawba grapes were eaten, and the remainder were made into wine. Temple sold the house to Mrs. Fannie O’Connor in 1875, and after one additional owner, it became the Melrose Art Center (1928–33). The art center sold the property—by then only the house and a small amount of grounds—to H. L. Dulin, who sold it to UT in 1946 to be demolished for a dormitory, Melrose, which continued its name.