
Federal Aviation Administration | The Yellow House
Posted: 01.21.2025 | Updated: 01.21.2025
Slavery is the black spot in the nation’s history that will never fade. Visions of bound and chained Africans working and living at the behest of their masters are deeply embedded in the nation’s foundation. Even if one wanted to forget the atrocities, the spirits at locations like The Yellow House serve as a constant reminder. Thought to have occupied where the Orville Wright Building now stands, The Yellow House was a slave depot used to house servitors before being sent to their new masters.
The enslaved were shackled and treated like the property that chattel slavery designated them to be. Atrocities like vicious whippings were commonplace. The blood of the innocent seeped within the property’s grounds. The Yellow House may no longer exist, but the memories of its horrific history are part of its eternal legacy.
As the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., has seen its share of horrors. Progress often breeds suffering. In that suffering, the resulting negative energy can manifest restless spirits. To hear about more haunted locations like The Yellow House, book a Washington, D.C. ghost tour today.
Is The Yellow House Haunted?

When still a slave depot, its shackled populace purportedly complained of an unsettling scratching echoing from the floors beneath their feet. Some also spoke of a putrid smell with no known source. In the aftermath of the slave trade, the haunts evolved, taking on a far more distressing form.
The screams of those bound in the basement can be heard today. Years of malicious mistreatment of enslaved people corrupted the natural energy where The Yellow House once sat. What was left behind was an emotional imprint that not even time can heal.
The Williams Brothers Drive Local Slave Trade
Not to be confused with Founding Father William Williams, the Connecticut Congressional delegate who was vehemently against slavery, William H. Williams has a much darker legacy. If not for his work in D.C., alongside his brother Thomas, the Orville Wright Building would have a much different history. It would also likely have far fewer otherworldly residents.
After the abolishment of the transatlantic slave trade, the Williams brothers took an opportunity to be a nationwide supplier of vassals. Using what was believed to be his private home, William Williams penned slaves, either for purchase or for temporary housing, when slave owners came into town. It was all the Williams brothers would become known for, their names all but torn from history with the demolition of The Yellow House.
In fact, if not for the writings of a former slave, it’s possible the Williams brothers would have been long forgotten. Their work as traders would have been overshadowed by the abolitionists who directly opposed them.
A Memoir of Historical Horrors
The ghosts of The Yellow House aren’t even the building’s scariest facet. Instead, that would be the stories of slavery tied to it. Stories like that of Solomon Northup, a free man who had been tricked into becoming a prisoner of Williams’ pen. Some may recognize The Yellow House as the Twelve Years a Slave house. It was a core part of Northup’s autobiographical memoir of the same name.
Later adapted into an award-winning movie, the memoir explains the destitute conditions the slaves lived in. Not only were they robbed of basic amenities and freedoms, but they also dealt with much physical abuse. Northup vividly describes the Williams’ house basement as a dungeon where the enslaved were shackled and beaten. Northup was on the receiving end of some of those beatings, especially when he tried to proclaim his freedom.
The novel is an important part of history and confirms what the dead already say: that slavery was far more brutal and vicious than can be imagined. It makes it a little easier to understand why the ghosts at plantations and sites like The Yellow House are mostly apparitions of former slaves rather than their overseers. They’re anchored to the world by the barbarity enacted upon them. For many, they’re still seeking freedom in the afterlife.
Where Was the Infamous Yellow House?
Many accounts covering the history of The Yellow House suggest it stood where the Orville Wright Building is today. Years before it was the Orville Wright Building, though, it was a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Headquarters dubbed FOB 10A. According to an FAA historian, it’s quite possible that neither of these iterations stood atop the grounds where slaves cried for salvation.
In a document titled “Was FAA HQ the Site of a Notorious Slave Pen?,” historian Theresa L. Kraus runs through a number of different locations that may have been where The Yellow House was built. Records about The Yellow House are scarce, and speculation about its location is largely based on the accounts of surviving slaves like Northup.
Most suggested locations are within the same general area, around Independence Avenue, the National Mall, and the Smithsonian. The question that remains, though, is if The Yellow House happened to be elsewhere and not where FOB 10A was built, then why are the screams of the tormented undead so localized in that area? Could there be another appalling history yet to be told about slavery in the capital?
The Tragic Ghosts of The Yellow House
On January 4, 1853, 12 years after his initial kidnapping, Solomon Northup was a free man once more. Though his experiences at The Yellow House likely stayed with him forever, there’s nothing to suggest his spirit still remains shackled at the horrid house. Unfortunately, so many others didn’t have the same luck.

There’s no one known spirit bound to the site of The Yellow House. It’s a cacophony of tortured souls, all reliving the deplorable conditions they experienced while still alive. Complaints about screams and rattling chains from others in the neighborhood are common, with no one able to identify a source grounded in our reality.
The Yellow House may be gone, but the evil that devastated the lives of many tainted the grounds. Whether it’s an empty lot, an FAA Headquarters, or even something completely different in the future, the spirits of the enslaved will continue to be shackled to those very grounds.
Haunted Washington, D.C.
Few nations, if any, were not built on grounds soaked in the blood of the past. In Washington, D.C., the essence of years of war, political turmoil, and the slave trade has taken its toll. The manifested energy is enough to draw in the dead and make historic buildings around the nation’s capital haunted.
Care to take a walk along the line that divides our realm from that of the dead? Book your Washington, D.C. ghost tour with D.C. Ghosts and explore a comprehensive history that crosses boundaries your typical history tour won’t. Be sure to brush up on your haunted history by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and reading our latest blogs on D.C.’s most notorious phantoms.
Sources:
- https://www.gsa.gov/real-estate/gsa-properties/visiting-public-buildings/orville-wright-federal-building/whats-inside/history
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-yellow-house-helped-make-washington-dc-slavery-capital-180975378/
- https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/about/history/milestones/Was_FAA_HQ_the_Site_of_a_Notorious_Slave_Pen.pdf
- https://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/independence-avenue-sw/
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