The Tunstall House
Apex, NC
The Tunstall House – Apex, NC
Everything You Need to Know
Everything You
Need to Know
Last Updated: February 12, 2025
What is the Tunstall House?
What is the Tunstall House?
Built in 1872, the Tunstall House has been home to a few of Apex’s influential families that are represented in its full name: The Thompson-Utley-Fletcher-Tunstall house.
The house sits on the highest point of Apex – meaning it is literally the peak of the peak.
The home was acquired by the Town of Apex roughly 20 years ago as we built out the Town Campus.
It sits directly next to Town Hall at 406 N Elm St, Apex, NC 27502.
The Historical Significance
The Historical Significance
The Apex Historic District is located in downtown Apex and is a Nationally Registered Historic District, which includes residential, commercial, and institutional structures.
There are a total of over 150 primary and secondary contributing structures, including the Tunstall House which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Since 1872, it has been home to generations of prominent Apex citizens. The most recent owners were, of course, the Tunstalls.
Mr. Tunstall was an employee of Wyatt-Quarles Seeds. His office was in the side yard, as was the shed where he kept his tractors. His garden was out back, between the house and what had been a line of trees and a small pond.
After he passed, his widow let a couple of others farm the garden. Originally, she kept a few rows for herself, but as she got older, they would give her whatever she wanted from their crop. Some of the produce was sold at the farmer’s market downtown or to Scott’s (the old Piggy-Wiggly).
Here is a description of the home, as seen in documentation from National Register of Historic Places:
“The traditional I-House form, with brick chimneys located on the rear, links the house to other Wake County farmhouses of the period. The house apparently retains its original floor plan and finish, with a center hall plan, simple Greek Revival style mantels, four-panel doors, and a steep stair with a heavy turned newel and balusters.
The wraparound front porch with center cross-gabled balcony, bracketed posts and a spindle frieze may have been added around the turn of the century. The one-story south end wing was apparently added at this time. The rear ell was demolished in the 1950s. Although this tract contains 7 acres, only the house, outbuildings, and the yard area are included in the district boundary.
The farm fields and pond at the north side and rear are excluded because it is likely that this portion of the tract will be subdivided and developed. The land was originally part of Shepherd’s Vineyard, the large plantation of Rev. Patrick Dowd.”
The Promise
The Promise
When the Town acquired the property for town campus from the family around 20 years ago, we promised to preserve and utilize the home.
But it’s really more than just a promise. We have a literal obligation to the Tunstall House; it was a condition in our contract of the initial purchase of Town Campus.
When the Town acquired the property for town campus from the family around 20 years ago, we promised to preserve and utilize the home.
But it’s really more than just a promise. We have a literal obligation to the Tunstall House; it was a condition in our contract of the initial purchase of Town Campus.
The Debate
The Debate
On February 4, 2025, Mayor Gilbert posted this video on social media with an interesting idea.
I’ll explain more below, but feel free to take a minute and 40 seconds to watch the video first if you’d like.
Let me (try) to break it down:
Let me (try) to break it down:
Since posting this video, there seems to be some confusion and/or misrepresentations of the proposed plan on both sides of the fence.
This is an important note: I am not affiliated with the Town. I have not interviewed anyone with the Town on this subject. I’m just a guy with a laptop who has spent the last 4 hours combing through information and I will now attempt to explain it the best I can to the best of my understanding.
The Tunstall House renovation was “fully funded” in the FY 23/24 budget.
Contracting/bidding took longer than expected so it got carried over to this fiscal year (24/25).
The Town finally bid the project at the end of 2024 and the bid came back almost $1M higher than estimated/budgeted.
To fully restore the Tunstall House, we need to move roughly $1M into that budget. By doing that, we will fulfill our obligation.
How the Tunstall House will be utilized still seems unknown. Maybe some Town employee office space. Maybe an event space? I don’t think that has been decided.
The Pleasant Park Baseball Fields project has been approved and is fully funded.
The Mayor suggests an opportunity to move that $1M into the Pleasant Park Fields project, instead of the Tunstall House project, to upgrade the fields to “collegiate level”.
The budgeted $2M would still go towards the Tunstall House but would not fully complete the restoration. We would revisit completing that portion at a later date.
By adding the $1M to the baseball fields project, it would: increase youth and adult programming opportunities, boost economic impact by bringing in tournaments and events, and generate significant tax revenue to reduce the burden on residents.
The ROI from that could then be used to complete the Tunstall House project, while continuing to generate revenue long-term.
Some Lingering Questions
Some Lingering Questions
For what it’s worth, 48 of you took the poll in last week’s email and 71% were in favor of a phased-approach to start on the Tunstall House while simultaneously upgrading the fields.
As a reminder, I am not an expert. I may have gotten some things wrong. Please do your own research. I did my best to pull together the information as accurately as I can. I recommend readingMayor Gilbert’s most recent Facebook post on the subject, as well as Apex Town Council’s, Terry Mahaffey’s Facebook post.
The biggest question of all, though… if you are not subscribed to The Peak Weekly… WHY NOT?!
