The village of Rogozhino located on the site of the current city. Rogozhino was part of the palace Unzha volost in the 18th century. This volost is called a 'newly settled volost' in documents from the early 18th century. This is also the name of the villages that were part of it and located along the Unzha River.

Then this village is called 'Veretevo', apparently from the manufacture of spindles (Russian, 'веретено' [verete'no]). Local residents make their living using the forest resources – they processed bast and wood.

The word 'Melenki' first appears in documents in 1671.

Before the division of Russia into provinces, the Melenki district was part of the Murom district, and its north-western corner belonged to the Vladimir district.

In 1778, the palace village of Melenki received the status of a chief town of its district when the Vladimir province was divided into districts.

At that time there were about 150 wooden thatched buildings in Melenki. While waiting for the first governor of the Vladimir province, R.I. Vorontsov, Prokofy Valenkov, the village head, ordered local residents to put up Christmas trees near their houses, hang lanterns on them, and place tar barrels in the field at the village entrance. Vorontsov liked this illumination, and he awarded Melenki the title of a chief town of its district.