Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 33% of U.S. towns · #124 of 253 in Virginia. What drives it
Most of Gloucester Point was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Its Register listing is the Little England. Below: 5 old photos and papers and maps from 1948 on.
The Gloucester Point post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Hayes Store (1849), Crab (1901) and Tidemill (1936), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 33% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gloucester Point is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #124 of 253 in Virginia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Virginia town has 3.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Gloucester Point’s 0.9 sits near the middle of its state (40% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Gloucester Point’s post office has been open since 1877. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Gloucester Point.
Originally explored by English Christopher Newport, John Smith, and Robert Tyndall in 1608, "Tyndall's Point" was renamed to Gloucester at some point in the 1600s. The point is downstream from Werowocomoco, capital of the Powhatan Confederacy since the 1609.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveGloucester from the river
In the archiveThe Gloucester Point end of the Gloucester Point-Yorktown, Virginia ferry
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Gloucester Point. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Gloucester Point.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Gloucester Point’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Gloucester Point itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Gloucester Point’s history is told.
The Gloucester Point post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Gloucester Point is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #124 of 253 in Virginia. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
One place: the Little England (listed 1970).
7% of Gloucester Point’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.5 points), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1982.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From the Library of Congress (5), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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