diff --git a/jupyterhub/apihandlers/__init__.py b/jupyterhub/apihandlers/__init__.py
index 367595c0..ec07df9b 100644
--- a/jupyterhub/apihandlers/__init__.py
+++ b/jupyterhub/apihandlers/__init__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 from .base import *
 from .auth import *
+from .hub import *
 from .proxy import *
 from .users import *
 
-from . import auth, proxy, users
+from . import auth, hub, proxy, users
 
 default_handlers = []
-for mod in (auth, proxy, users):
+for mod in (auth, hub, proxy, users):
     default_handlers.extend(mod.default_handlers)
diff --git a/jupyterhub/apihandlers/hub.py b/jupyterhub/apihandlers/hub.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c31765ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jupyterhub/apihandlers/hub.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+"""API handlers for administering the Hub itself"""
+
+# Copyright (c) Jupyter Development Team.
+# Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
+
+from tornado import web
+from tornado.ioloop import IOLoop
+
+from ..utils import admin_only
+from .base import APIHandler
+
+class ShutdownAPIHandler(APIHandler):
+    
+    @admin_only
+    def post(self):
+        """POST /api/shutdown triggers a clean shutdown
+        
+        URL parameters:
+        
+        - servers: specify whether single-user servers should be terminated
+        - proxy: specify whether the proxy should be terminated
+        """
+        from ..app import JupyterHub
+        app = JupyterHub.instance()
+        proxy = self.get_argument('proxy', '').lower()
+        if proxy == 'false':
+            app.cleanup_proxy = False
+        elif proxy == 'true':
+            app.cleanup_proxy = True
+        elif proxy:
+            raise web.HTTPError(400, "proxy must be true or false, got %r" % proxy)
+        servers = self.get_argument('servers', '').lower()
+        if servers == 'false':
+            app.cleanup_servers = False
+        elif servers == 'true':
+            app.cleanup_servers = True
+        elif servers:
+            raise web.HTTPError(400, "servers must be true or false, got %r" % servers)
+        
+        # finish the request
+        self.set_status(202)
+        self.finish()
+        
+        # stop the eventloop, which will trigger cleanup
+        loop = IOLoop.current()
+        loop.add_callback(loop.stop)
+
+
+default_handlers = [
+    (r"/api/shutdown", ShutdownAPIHandler),
+]
diff --git a/jupyterhub/app.py b/jupyterhub/app.py
index 09e4d7ea..1bbe5eba 100644
--- a/jupyterhub/app.py
+++ b/jupyterhub/app.py
@@ -846,6 +846,7 @@ class JupyterHub(Application):
     @gen.coroutine
     def cleanup(self):
         """Shutdown our various subprocesses and cleanup runtime files."""
+        
         futures = []
         if self.cleanup_servers:
             self.log.info("Cleaning up single-user servers...")
@@ -868,7 +869,7 @@ class JupyterHub(Application):
                 yield f
             except Exception as e:
                 self.log.error("Failed to stop user: %s", e)
-
+        
         self.db.commit()
         
         if self.pid_file and os.path.exists(self.pid_file):
@@ -963,9 +964,16 @@ class JupyterHub(Application):
         # start the webserver
         self.http_server = tornado.httpserver.HTTPServer(self.tornado_application, xheaders=True)
         self.http_server.listen(self.hub_port)
+        atexit.register(self.atexit)
+    
+    def atexit(self):
+        """atexit callback"""
         # run the cleanup step (in a new loop, because the interrupted one is unclean)
+        IOLoop.clear_current()
+        loop = IOLoop()
+        loop.make_current()
+        loop.run_sync(self.cleanup)
         
-        atexit.register(lambda : IOLoop().run_sync(self.cleanup))
     
     def stop(self):
         if not self.io_loop: