Hunter Elementary offers Gifted & Talented curriculum and was Wake County's first magnet school.

[2] Hunter Elementary is named after Lucille Hunter who, born in 1883 to former slaves in Wilmington, North Carolina, was an educator that taught in Raleigh's segregated black schools for over forty years, including a position as a third grade teacher at the now demolished Washington School.

The decision to name the school after Hunter was reached after her former students and colleagues lobbied the Raleigh Township Committee.

[3] From 1833 to 1840, the ten acres (4.0 ha) of land that the school was later built on was a quarry that yielded stone for the North Carolina State Capitol.

[3] Early in the morning of January 22, 1965, a large fire engulfed Hunter,[6] completely destroying the school's main wing.

Classes were held in Hunter's basement and at John W. Ligon Junior-Senior High School until repairs were completed.

[3] In the 1990s the school was featured in a broadcast on ABC's Good Morning America, where psychologist Robert Sternberg's theories on intelligence were tested on students.