WENDELL - A Wendell history lesson will be presented at the Oct. 10 town board meeting when the Wake County Historic Preservation Commission makes its case for designating Main Street's Bunn House as a historic landmark.

Commissioners agreed to hold a public hearing at the next town meeting to consider a town ordinance declaring the house a landmark.

Town approval is the only step left before the Wake County Historic Preservation Commission makes the house a historic landmark, owner Keith Acree said.

The house at 102 South Main Street is known as the Bunn House, named after Lois Bunn, who lived there most of her life.

The Wake County Historic Preservation committee knows it as the Hales-Tunnell-Bunn House, named for a few of the owners of the home.

It could actually be called the Hales-Griffin-Tunnell-Bunn-Beaver-Dickson-Acree house for all the owners from its construction beginning around 1908 to the current residents, Keith and Kara Acree.

Millard F. Hales bought the land and built the house, but he lost it in foreclosure in 1922. Broadus H. Griffin, owner of the Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel in Raleigh, bought the house and in 1931 gave it to his sister, Pattie Griffin Tunnell, who lived there with her family - husband Henry, son John and daughter Lois.

After Lois married Thomas Cade Bunn, they moved into an apartment built into the house and stayed with her parents until their deaths in 1963.

In 1988, Lois Bunn sold the home to Kenneth and Peggy Ann Beaver, who renovated the home extensively. They sold the house to John and Pandra Dickson in 1997. Then the Acrees bought the house in 2004.

The two-story white house is considered historical because it is a classic example of Queen Anne architecture, Acree said.

The Bunn House has a double-tiered, wraparound porch and multiple gables along the roofline.

Queen Anne houses are known for their ornamental design. In a landmark application provided by Acree, the preservation committee that reviewed the Bunn House compared it to another Queen Anne house in Wendell, the Mallie Asa Griffin House at 3720 Wendell Boulevard.

The preservation group described the Griffin House as a more ornate example of a Queen Anne. But even without the design flourishes, the Bunn House was considered an impressive example of the style of home built in the early 20th Century.

Acree said the landmark consideration came unexpectedly.

The current homeowners were not pursuing any historic recognition, but the house was singled out with a few others along Main Street when the local historic society proposed a designation for an entire section of the road.

The Wake County Historic Preservation Commission surveyed the home for the landmark application.

Preservation committee members will attend the Oct. 10 Wendell meeting to make the presentation describing the features of the house that make it worthy of a historic site.

If approved as a Wendell Historic Landmark, the house would be protected from demolition or remodeling and a sign describing its historic landmark status would be erected on the site.