Wilmington is a musical town. To know that, just look at its streets.
Off Wrightsville Avenue, Bonham and Page avenues have long reminded Wilmington rockers of the legendary British band Led Zeppelin, whose members include guitarist Jimmy Page and the late drummer John Bonham.
Fans of The Beatles might choose to live in the corner of town hemmed in by Market Street and College Road, where Lennon Drive intersects with Ringo Drive, and Penny Lane is nearby.
Then there’s a neighborhood off Military Cutoff Road, where (Roy?) Orbison Drive is just a short walk from (Elvis?) Presley Lane and Lido Drive, the latter of which might be the perfect place to blast Boz Scagg’s fist-pumping song “Lido Shuffle” and its famous refrain, “One more for the road.”
But are all these streets really named after famous songs or musicians?
Let’s start with Bonham and Page avenues, which, despite being right next to each other off Wrightsville Avenue, have nothing to do with Led Zeppelin. The band’s first album didn’t come out until 1969, but the 1962 Wilmington city directory, which listed every street in town at that time, contains listings for both Bonham and Page, the latter of which is interestingly referred to as “Page’s Avenue.”