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Pronunciation
Many outsiders erroneously pronounce Corolla the same as they pronounce the name of the car, the Toyota Corolla, where the second syllable sounds like roe (Kuh-ROE-Luh). However, residents pronounce the second syllable like all (Kuh-RAH-Luh). Phonetically, the residents' pronunciation makes sense given the double consonant following the vowel.
History
The community of Corolla began as a European development on American Indian hunting grounds. Tribes including the Chowanog and Poteskeet hunted on the barrier reef.
The town of Corolla began as a community known as Jones Hill. It was also known as Whalehead or Currituck Beach. Early settlers made a living from fishing and hunting as well as from salvage from shipwrecks and service as guides to hunters. Construction of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse resulted in a stabilization of the economy with a new influx of jobs. Currituck was an American Indian term for geese. The area had at the time a large wild geese population.
The town officially took the name Corolla in 1895 when a post office opened in the community. The name was chosen to refer to the botanic term for the petals of a flower..
Development of Currituck's Northern Outer Banks began in 1967 when investors from Sandbridge, Virginia, put together an investment group to purchase the undeveloped land. The first subdivision plotted was Carova with 1,993 lots. The lots were originally priced at $11,500; as of 2006, some of these lots are worth up to $500,000.citation needed
The investors planned for a road to come through from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to allow access to the lots, however these plans were abandoned in 1973 when the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge south of Sandbridge was closed to all vehicular traffic, except by permit. Development pushed south through the 1970s, creating well over 1,000 additional lots in several subdivisions. In 1984 the residents of Corolla succeeded in their attempts to gain a public access road from the south and the state began paving the extension of NC-12 towards the north.
While there are of course permanent residents in Corolla, Corolla is primarily a summer vacation community. In fact, many of the houses are built with six to eight bedrooms making this location a favorite for multi-family vacations or reunions.
External links
- Corolla Beach Stories and Notes
- Corolla Guide - A History of Corolla on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
References and Notes
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