William Markham (October 9, 1811 – November 9, 1890) was a hotel owner in Atlanta, who served as mayor of that city from 1853 to 1854.

[1][2] He moved to Atlanta in 1853, and that October, following the illness of John Mims, he filled in as mayor and won a special election soon after.

[1] Within a year of destruction of Atlanta, he had already started rebuilding commercial sites.

He dedicated the city's largest hotel, the Markham House, on November 15, 1875.

It had 107 rooms, central heat and was the center of civic life until it burned to the ground in 1896, six years after the death of its builder.