Apex is a town in Wake County, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. The population was 20,212 at the 2000 census and is over 32,000 in 2006. The town motto is "The Peak of Good Living".
The town of Apex was incorporated in 1873, named for its location as the highest point on the Chatham Rail Line between the state capitol of Raleigh and the coal fields of nearby Chatham County. Apex grew slowly through the succeeding decades, despite several devastating fires, including a 1912 conflagration which destroyed most of the downtown business district. The town center was rebuilt and stands to this day, now one of the most intact railroad towns in the state. At the heart of town stands the Apex Union Depot, originally passenger station for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and later home to the locally-supported Apex Community Library.
Apex suffered mild setbacks during the Depression-era, but growth began again in earnest in the 1950's. The town's position in proximity to North Carolina's Research Triangle Park spurred additional residential development, yet the town managed to preserve its small-town character, residents taking pride that they had stayed off the burgeoning growth of the neighboring city of Cary. Still, during the decade of the 1990's, the town's population quadrupled to over 20,000, placing unprecedented demands upon Apex's infrastructure.
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