Fate of Nags Head's Yellow House uncertain

NAGS HEAD

Calvert Duvall liked his solitude. He liked it enough to build his own little place in the middle of a maritime forest.

Known informally as the Yellow House, the tiny cabin has been a fixture in Nags Head Woods Preserve for decades. But now the abandoned cottage has become a target for vandals and partying teenagers rather than a refuge for visitors from the bustling beach.

"I am just concerned about safety issues back there," said Aaron McCall, northeast regional steward for The Nature Conservancy, which manages the preserve.

"I have to look at that structure and be concerned not only with the safety of the people, but what's going on at the house... because we're in a drought. A house fire could become a woods fire."

The approximately 600-square-foot building, which sits on the edge of Old Nags Head Woods Road, is equipped with a compact bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and porch. The doors and windows have been kicked in, and its exterior has been marred with graffiti that has been painted over.

Jointly owned by the conservancy and the town, the house was most recently used to house interns, McCall said. It was last occupied in 2003.

McCall has asked the town of Nags Head for permission to tear down the Yellow House. At its meeting in March, the town Board of Commissioners asked staff for more information about the house before making its decision.

"To me, it's part of Nags Head Woods," Commissioner Wayne Gray said in an interview. "I don't see any need for tearing something like that down. It's been there a long time. It seems like we're tearing everything down."

Legend has it, at least among local young people, that a " goat- man" resides at the house.

"Everybody knows about the goat- man," said Stephen Nichols, an English teacher at Manteo High School. "But there's not really a fleshed-out story, and I've asked a lot of people."

Nichols, who has taught at Manteo since 2004, said that the legend always has goat- man living in a little yellow house in Nags Head Woods. Some say he's an old crazy guy who yells at kids who go near the house. Some say he does Satanic rituals with dead cats.

Nichols said he has yet to hear the origin of the legend.

"He is their Boogie Man around here," he said.

Neither Duvall nor Gray say they've heard of goat- man.

Robert Duvall said his uncle built the cabin on 44 acres of family land about 40 years ago. Duvall said he has fond memories of visiting the house with his father's brother.

"He retired down here," said Duvall, a 69-year-old Kill Devil Hills resident. "He was always the one who wanted to get away from the traffic. He built that (the house) to get off the beach area."

Calvert Duvall, a retired Coast Guardsman and shipyard worker, used to go back to his woods retreat "probably every day," his nephew said. He made a canal behind the house to the Roanoke Sound, and he liked to fish there. Sometimes, they'd go together to hunt old bottles on the sound shore. Sometimes, he'd just sit, have a beer and think.

Robert Duvall said that his grandmother grew up in Nags Head Woods, and although his uncle was raised in Manteo, he was very familiar with the woods. When he died about 10 years ago, the family decided to sell the property.

"I used to love to go back there, especially in the winter time, when you didn't have to worry about the snakes," he said.

"You can't go back there now without somebody stopping and asking you, 'What are you doing?' "

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com