The Markham Historic District is located on the upper reaches of Goose Creek, an important power source for milling operations in northwestern Fauquier County during the 19th century. The community was known initially as North Point because it marked the northernmost stop on the stage road connecting it to Culpeper Court House to the south. Railroad pioneer Edward C. Marshall, son of Chief Justice John Marshall and the first president of the Manassas Gap Railroad, renamed the town Markham in the 1850s. During the Civil War, Federal and Confederate forces fought for control of Markham because of its strategic location.  Today the Markham Historic District is significant for its surviving and remarkably unaltered architectural fabric, which includes a railroad station, a post office, several stores, an early mill, and a hotel and rooming houses that once accommodated railroad travelers. In addition to its connection with Marshall, the village is significant for its association with Confederate General Turner Ashby, who is believed to have operated a mill there prior to the war.