"China Grove was built on a plantation established in 1804 by Willis McDonald, a Revolutionary War soldier. The core of the existing house is a dogtrot structure which originally consisted of only two rooms and an open passage constructed of massive logs. Later additions during the Greek Revival period substantially enlarged the house.

"The National Register nomination for the property states that the log portion of the house may have been constructed shortly after 1804, when McDonald acquired the property. However, WPA material on Jefferson County contains the information that the existing house was built after Wiley McDonald's first house burned in 1826 (Marie T. Logan, MISSISSIPPI--LOUISIANA BORDER COUNTRY: A HISTORY OF RODNEY, MISSISSIPPI, ST. JOSEPH, LOUISIANA, AND ENVIRONS [Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishing Co., 1970], p. 176). Although the existing house does not have territorial period origins, the plantation itself was established during the territorial period."

This house was listed on the National Register on 3 April 1980, with 240.9 acres of land.