By
• SANETTE TANAKA
• CONNECT

Some houses in the U.S. have been around longer than the U.S.

Pre-Revolutionary Road

View Slideshow

David Kasnic for The Wall Street Journal

Melissa Meister, the owner of this 1705 home in Mill Neck, N.Y., has listed the property for $3.275 million.

As the country celebrates its 237th birthday on Thursday, Spread Sheet takes a look at colonial-era homes for sale across the country.

Only 850 homes built in 1776 and earlier are currently on the market, according to real-estate listings website Homes.com. Massachusetts has the largest share, with 20.82% of the listings for pre-1776 homes. There, the average list price for these homes is $737,804. Connecticut and New Hampshire rank second and third for number of pre-1776 homes on the market.

Most of these homes have gotten better—or at least bigger—with age. In addition to plumbing and electricity, many have modern garages, large kitchens, basements and master-bedroom suites.

“It’s really, really rare to find an 18th-century house that has its original footprint. Almost all of these houses have been added to,” says Peter LaBau, a residential designer based in Charlottesville, Va., a state with 55 pre-1776 homes on the market.

Melissa Meister bought her 1705 house in Mill Neck, N.Y., for $1.63 million in 2003 and spent the next 10 months and $1.5 million renovating it. The plumbing and electrical systems were updated, and central heat and air-conditioning were installed. She redid the kitchen and created a master-bedroom suite with walk-in closets.

Still, the original materials were preserved, when possible, including the pine floors, fireplaces, doors and plumbing fixtures.

True to colonial era, the windows are small, the stairway is steep and ceilings are low. “I didn’t come in here and try to make it into something it’s not,” she says. Her family is moving to a home on the water, so she has listed the colonial home for $3.275 million with Cottie Maxwell Pournaras of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Linda Rosenthall, a New London, N.H.-based real-estate agent with Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty, says she markets colonial homes on historical websites or publications to target buyers who are specifically looking for an older home. “The exposed beams, beautiful hardwood floor—you just can’t find that in other homes,” she says.

Ms. Rosenthall has a house on the market for $4.75 million in Lyndeborough, N.H., built in 1751. The house sits on more than 286 acres that also includes a guest house, pool house and cottage.

Write to Sanette Tanaka at sanette.tanaka@wsj.com