“Gloucester Point has a rich history as a geographic marker,” the head of an archaeology and historic preservation service said Thursday night.

During a lecture at Watermen’s Hall on the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Lyle Torp, founder and managing director of The Ottery Group, said that Gloucester Point shows up on Captain John Smith’s maps of the region dating from the early 1600s. Gloucester Point was mainly settled after 1640, he said.

By the time of the Revolutionary War, Torp said, Gloucester Point probably had about 50 buildings, compared to about 70 buildings at Yorktown. There were houses, inns and a wharf at Gloucester Point, some located where the buildings of the VIMS campus now stand.

Many artifacts have been retrieved at Gloucester Point during the past 35 years, especially as new buildings were added on the VIMS campus, Torp said. Often only cursory digs could be conducted ahead of construction crews and many of the artifacts have never...