Progress?

Below is a list of several modern conveniences and when they arrived on Ocracoke:

• 1936...Wahab Village Hotel (now Blackbeard's Lodge), the island's first modern hotel, opens.
• 1938...Electricity comes to Ocracoke.
• 1943...The first road is paved (a one-lane concrete road paved by the US Navy; it proceeded from the Navy Base, down Back Road, and up Sunset Drive to the intersection of Cutting Sage Road & Trent Road).
• 1950...Frazier Peele begins operating ferry service at Hatteras Inlet.
• 1951... The state of North Carolina begins paving other roads in the village.
• 1956...Ocracoke gets telephones. 
• 1957...NC12 (from the village to Hatteras Inlet) is paved; the state of NC takes over operation of ferry service across Hatteras Inlet.
• 1961...Ferry service established between Cedar Island and Ocracoke.
• Ca. 1962...Airstrip built.
• 1966...Ocracoke Fire Department organized.
• 1977...Ferry service established between Swan Quarter and Ocracoke. 
• 1977...Ocracoke gets a reverse osmosis desalination municipal water system.
• The late 1970s...ABC store is established on the island. 
• 1979...Howard's Pub opens.
• 1981...Dr. Warren Silverman comes to Ocracoke; the island's first resident doctor in forty years.
• 1982...Ocracoke Health Clinic opened.
• 1985...Cable television introduced.
• 1987...Ocracoke's first harbor-front condo opened.
• 2006...Liquor by the drink is approved.

If you have ever wondered how the street you live on or vacation on got its name, or are just curious about other street names, take a look at this month's Ocracoke Newsletter. We have compiled a list of every official street in Ocracoke village, along with one or more paragraphs explaining how they came to be named. You can read the Newsletter here.