Biohazard Cleanup Near Markham Historic District Markham, TX

Markham is an unincorporated census-designated place in Matagorda County on the Texas Gulf Coast plain, roughly ninety miles southwest of downtown Houston.

The community was founded in 1901 under the name Cortes, which its first post office carried only briefly.

In 1903 the town was renamed Markham in honor of Charles H. Markham, a railroad engineer for Southern Pacific who later became president of the Illinois Central Railroad.

By 1914 Markham was a designated stop on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad with a population of about 500.

Markham organized its own independent school district by the mid-1930s, when it had about a dozen businesses in operation.

Markham's population peaked at 1,554 in 1980, the first census in which it was listed as a census-designated place, and it has declined in every census since, reaching 908 residents in 2020.

The 2000 census counted 1,138 residents in Markham living in 386 households, with an average household size of just under three people.

About 38 percent of Markham's residents identified as Hispanic or Latino in the 2020 census.

Markham students are served by the Tidehaven Independent School District, and the designated community college for the area is Wharton County Junior College.