What's in a name? | Corolla

Corolla's beginnings are not clear, but about 200 years ago it was a village on the Currituck Outer Banks where it is believed that locals hunted whales offshore. Now, the unincorporated community is a bustling attraction with upscale beach homes around shops and restaurants catering to thousands of tourists each summer.

Corolla has become Currituck County's largest provider of revenue in property and occupancy taxes.

For more than 100 years, residents there largely made their living tending gardens, hunting and fishing. By the late 1800s, wealthy northern businessmen paid local guides to take them waterfowl hunting in the Currituck Sound.

In 1875, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse was completed, adding lighthouse keepers and their families to the local population. The U.S. Lifesaving Service built stations along the beach there with crews on the lookout for ships in trouble offshore.

In the late 1800s, about 150 people lived there, according to "The Heritage of Currituck County" published by the Albemarle Genealogical Society. At the time, the area was known by an assortment of names including Whales Head, Jones Hill and Currituck Beach.

In 1885, when the community was scheduled for a post office, the federal government asked for suggestions on a proper name. Traditional names were rejected in favor of Corolla (pronounced Ko-RAH-lah), the central part of a flower. A teacher at the one-room schoolhouse offered the name for the abundant violet s that grew wild there, according to native Norris Austin in "Corolla Walking Tour and Guide Book." Visitors often incorrectly pronounce the name like the Toyota model.

In 1925, business tycoon Edward C. Knight Jr. finished a plush mansion in Corolla that served as a hunting lodge where many locals were employed.

After the Knights died, the property was sold and became known as the Whalehead Club before eventually passing through various owners and purposes.

For years it lay vacant and deteriorating until Currituck County bought the property in 1992 and restored it.

Corolla remained remote and sparsely populated until 1984, when the state took over the road to the community.

With paved roads open to the public, developers rushed in. In a few years, Corolla went from a quaint village of a few dozen homes to a tourist attraction with 3,174 homes and 149 commercial operations, according to tax records. Two of the main attractions are the lighthouse and the Whalehead Club.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com