FOCUS : Wrong-Way Legend in a No-Name Neighborhood

At its northernmost tip, the city of Santa Ana forms a cartographic equilateral triangle--its sides the Santa Ana River and Freeway, its base Santiago Creek. Unlike other sections of the city--Floral Park and Santa Ana Gardens, for example--this neighborhood is not known by a particular name. And that seems a pity, given its niche in history. The only clue to what gives the neighborhood its true distinction is Corrigan Avenue, named for the neighborhood’s most famous resident, Douglas (Wrong Way) Corrigan.

The legendary aviator, who helped build Charles Lindbergh’s plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, became instantly famous himself in 1938 after he took off in a Curtis Robin monoplane from Floyd Bennett Field on Long Island on a cross-country flight to Long Beach. But when he landed 28 hours later at an airfield in Baldonnel, Ireland, he claimed to have mistakenly flown the wrong way.

But Corrigan had made previous requests to the Civil Aeronautics Board to make the trans-Atlantic flight and was turned down by officials who thought his secondhand plane would never hold up. In fact, there were no gauges monitoring the fuel in the plane’s five gas tanks, and Corrigan used a wad of chewing gum stuck on the window to remind him which tank was in use. His de-icer was a 10-foot pole used to whack the ice off the wings.

Even though Corrigan has repeatedly told the same story about his “honest mistake,” many think he flew the wrong way on purpose. When he landed in Ireland, he received a 600-word telegram from CAB listing the rules he had violated, and his license was suspended for five days. But when he returned with his plane by ship to New York, he was given a hero’s welcome. His ticker-tape parade down Broadway was bigger than Lindbergh’s.

The Depression-weary public loved the sly rule-breaker. Corrigan published an autobiography and played himself in a movie about his feat. There were even “Wrong Way” Corrigan watches that ran backward.

Even though his nickname is still a household word applied to those who attempt things in a backward fashion, Corrigan dropped from the limelight many years ago. Even people who live on Corrigan Avenue don’t know the legend still lives just a few streets up from Memory Lane, in a modest house on Flower Street.

Corrigan’s mailbox faces the wrong direction; his beloved plane, “Sunshine,” is stored in the garage. And according to his son, Douglas Jr., who shares the house with the 82-year-old widower, there are no plans to donate the plane to a museum, even though it was reassembled last year and exhibited at the Hawthorne Air Faire. The exhibition was a rare public appearance for Corrigan, who shuns inquiries from reporters and historians. Neighbors say he is reclusive.

Most of the area around Corrigan’s house is developed on land he previously owned. For years it was the only citrus ranch left in Santa Ana, originally purchased by Corrigan in 1950 with $50,000 earned from the film about his life. But high taxes forced Corrigan to sell all but a small portion of the 20-acre ranch to a developer in 1969. The trees, originally planted in 1910, were removed to make room for houses.

Corrigan Avenue is bordered by Morrison Park, which sits adjacent to Orange County’s oldest Protestant church, Spurgeon United Methodist, named for Santa Ana founder William L.H. Spurgeon. The church was formed in 1869 by pioneer farmers who originally held services in a farmhouse.

Somehow the Orange County regional office of Farmers Insurance seems an odd presence in the vicinity of one of the nation’s symbols of daring and risk-taking, but more than 600,000 policies are monitored not far from Corrigan’s house in an office tucked away on Farmers Drive behind a small orange grove. The company has been in the neighborhood since 1963.

Just outside the grounds, a group of local teen-agers gathers every day after school to practice their own form of daredevilry. Jason Primrose’s favorite trick is to zoom down the sidewalk, become momentarily airborne on his skateboard at the curb and roll across the trunk of a friend’s car parked there for just that purpose.

Insiders know about the graffiti-marked cement drainage ditch across the railroad tracks at the end of Flower Street where local skateboard hotshots show off their skill by seeing how many passes they can make up and down the side of the ditch, hooking and turning the board on the edges.

“This is it,” says Justin Zachery, who lives nearby. “There are no more skateboard parks around here since the Big O closed. So we just made our own. Caltrans tries to keep us out, but a bunch of us got together and carried off the block they put up.”

“Wrong Way” Corrigan, notorious improviser and rule-bender, would probably be amused.

Population Total: (1989 est.) 4,772 1980-89 change: +15% Median Age: 32.8

Racial/ethnic mix: White: (non-Latino) 70% Latino 19% Other 7% Black 4%

By sex and age: MALES Median age: 31.6 years FEMALES Median age: 34.1 years

Income Per capita: $14,159 Median household: $32,746 Average household: $36,423

Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 35% $25,000-49,999: 39% $50,000-74,999: 17% $75,000-$99,999: 5% $100,000 and more: 4%