Corolla, North Carolina

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Corolla is an unincorporated community located in Poplar Branch Township[1], Currituck County, North Carolina, along the northern Outer Banks. It has a permanent population of about 500 people and about 50 wild horses. Corolla is home to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, one of the seven North Carolina coastal lighthouses. While there are year-round residents, Corolla is primarily a summer community. In fact, many of the houses are built with 6-8 bedrooms making this location a favorite for multi-family vacations or reunions.

Corolla Shores

[edit] 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. However, residents pronounce the second syllable like all.

[edit] Development history

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.

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.