Besides the main house, the meat house is the only building original to Historic Latta Plantation that is still standing. The reason this building is termed a meat house rather than a smoke house is that it has a raised floor, indicating that most of the preservation techniques were probably salting and drying. Smoke houses usually had dirt floors to lower the risk of fire.

The exterior is sheathed with beaded double-grooved siding nailed directly to the sawn vertical posts in the same manner as the main house. The corner boards are also beaded. An interesting detail is the wider board siding in the upper portion of the walls. No reason for this is apparent, other than the visual effect of relating the width of board to the height where installed.

The granite steps are similar to the those at the main house entrances and are thought to have been the steps to this building, although they had been moved away from the meat house and had to be brought back during restoration.

The interior shows strong evidence of smoke stains on all original timbers. This staining is typical on the upper parts of the walls and ceiling. The lower walls show bleached salt stains below work level from meat preserving, and the floor shows heavy residue from drippings. An oblong smoke pot, which was likely cast iron, left a charred hole in the left rear floor boards. Corner posts are hand-hewn in an "L" shape and are one-piece.

The massive framing and precise crafting of the wall and roof framing members illustrates the skill of the builders.