William Henry Parkins (June 1, 1836 – January 29, 1894) was an American architect best known for his work in Atlanta during the late 1800s. Born in New York in 1836, Parkins moved to South Carolina in the Antebellum era and was a Union sympathizer during the American Civil War. He spent over a year trying to travel across the South to make it back to his home state, and his journey was later adapted into a novel by noted author Archibald Clavering Gunter. Following the war, he moved to Atlanta and was the first and, for a time, only architect in the city. He received commissions for several major projects in the city and surrounding area, primarily for religious buildings, and some of his most notable works include the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Kimball House. Later in his