Corolla is Home to Currituck Heritage Park

Corolla is home to Currituck Heritage Park, a soundfront spread that includes the Whalehead Club, Currituck Beach Lighthouse and the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education.

It’s a day-trip waiting to happen, with lots of family-type opportunities. From taking a self-guided tour of the grounds to crabbing in the sound to launching a boat in the marina to having a picnic, the park beckons.

The Whalehead Club is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The spectacular residence was built in the mid-1920s by a wealthy businessman for his wife, who by some accounts, wasn’t allowed in the area’s all-male hunting clubs. They called it Corolla Island.

Bought in 1992 by Currituck County, the building underwent a $6 million restoration and is open for tours.

The new Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education spotlights the artifacts and stories of the people who depended on the Currituck Sound. Numerous programs for adults and children are featured.

The Currituck Beach Lighthouse also is open for tours. You can climb the 214 steps to the top of the 158-foot brick structure.

Admission to the park is free, but there are fees for the tours.

- John Harper BY JOHN HARPER

CORRESPONDENT

Corolla is not the get-away-from-it-all place it once was. Just a decade ago, the occupants of the land next to your beach cottage were more likely to be a herd of wild horses than the Jones family from Pittsburgh.

But the village on the north end of N.C. 12 in Currituck County is still far enough from the madding crowd to qualify as remote. Getting there is still an adventure, as the road bends dramatically several times along the route.

And with each twist and turn come spectacular sights: a sunset on Currituck Sound, geese and ducks in the marsh land, deer scampering through the brush, houses resembling castles and the Atlantic spreading as far as the eye can see.

The village itself still feels wide open. But business is buzzing in the beach town. Like its southern neighbor Duck, Corolla prides itself on having many one-of-a-kind shops. Three aesthetically pleasing shopping centers offer convenience, and each has fast-food outlets and upscale restaurants.

Water sports are a big part of the scene, with outlets renting and selling surfboards, windboards and catamarans. The Rees Jones- designed Currituck Club golf course, opened in 1996, is a challenging, 18-hole layout carved through the woods along the sound.

Just north of the commercial hub is Currituck Heritage Park with the Currituck Beach Lighthouse standing sentinel. Beyond the lighthouse, the long and winding road ends abruptly at the entrance to Carova Beach. AT A GLANCE

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There are no hard-surface roads in Carova Beach, which is just north of Corolla, but four-wheel-drive vehicles are allowed on the sand.

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The Currituck Sound is the only freshwater sound on the Outer Banks.

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Most of Corolla’s famed wild horses live in the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge. A fence across the northern beach is designed to keep them out of danger and mischief in more populated areas to the south.

(c) 2007 Virginian – Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.