“Although this is not from official research, the city has been told that the street name comes from a surname of someone who lived in the area,” said city of Wilmington spokeswoman Malissa Talbert.
Changing a street’s name involves several steps.
It must be approved by City Council. The switch also requires all residents and services — such as utility and tax databases — to change addresses.
“The process is time-consuming and does have some expense, although minimal, to the property owners and businesses along the road, so changes are not made very often,” Talbert said.
Related links:
What happened to the famous “Barstow, Calif.” sign on Interstate 40?
If I have a stolen street sign, how can I return it?
Why are the signs for our communities disappearing from main roadways in Brunswick County?
Date posted: October 7, 2010
User-contributed question by:
Woodrow Madison
Cannot believe no one could tell you this. The Hooker family lived for many years in the 1st house on the right after turning off Wrightsville Ave (although there are now 3 houses on what was 1 lot, theirs would be the 2nd one now). I used to surf with Mark Hooker in high school many years ago. I think there may still be some of the family members living farther down in that area. Unfortunately, having signs that say Hooker Road near UNCW means they will continue to be stolen no matter what measures are taken.
hooker road was named after dr. hooker that was an emergency room physician at cape fear mem. hosp. before it was bought by nhrmc. he retired from cfmh and has passed since then.
When I supervised the Adopt-A-Highway Program for NCDOT I got an application to adopt Hooker Road by a family with the last name Clapp.
I verified that they lived on Hooker Road and had approval from the Div. Eng. to let the family adopt it. But they decided not to.
Now that would have put Wilmington on the map having adopt-a-highway signs with the Hooker Road signs.
BTW the reason hooker got its meaning was in the Civil War when the prostitutes following General Hookers soliders started calling the “hookers”
Just talked with Robert Hooker about 3 weeks ago. He is alive and well, and the road is named after his family. Robert worked as an engineer for Tidewater Power Company, and retired from CP&L.