diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/subversion/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/subversion/package.py
index dbbd861a2a..b1f4df6f33 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/subversion/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/subversion/package.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ class Subversion(AutotoolsPackage):
 
     variant('serf', default=True,  description='Serf HTTP client library')
     variant('perl', default=False, description='Build with Perl bindings')
+    variant('apxs', default=True, description='Build with APXS')
     variant('nls', default=True, description='Enable Native Language Support')
 
     depends_on('apr')
@@ -95,6 +96,9 @@ def configure_args(self):
         if '+perl' in spec:
             args.append('PERL={0}'.format(spec['perl'].command.path))
 
+        if spec.satisfies('~apxs'):
+            args.append('APXS=no')
+
         if '+nls' in spec:
             args.extend([
                 'LDFLAGS={0}'.format(spec['gettext'].libs.search_flags),