The city of Marlin is located 4 miles (6 km) east of the Brazos River, which runs through the center of the county.

The low falls on the river southwest of present-day Marlin was the site of Sarahville de Viesca, established in 1834 by Sterling C. Robertson.

A tuition school, Marlin Male and Female Academy, was located on Ward Street in 1871, north of the courthouse square.

[7] A high-school commencement ceremony in Texas was called off after the district found that only of five of 33 students were eligible to graduate, officials said Friday.

Marlin HS, 30 miles southeast of Waco, had been set to pass out diplomas on Thursday May 26, 2023, before the MISD revealed that a number of pupils "did not meet requirements due to attendance or grades."

"We maintain high expectations, not as an imposition, but as a show of faith in our students' abilities," Henson said in a statement to the community.

Superintendent Henson and his staff audited student files this past weekend to find only five were eligible to graduate, district spokesperson Leah Wayne told NBC News on Friday.

The ineligibility stemmed from a myriad of reasons, including failing grades, attendance, verification and documentation issues.

The location of the depot on the eastern side of the town led to the development of a commercial district eastward from the courthouse square along Live Oak Street.

Other than the Hilton and the numerous boarding houses (such as Captain Bourrupt's and the Harris Houses), the town had several other hotels, among them the Fannin, the Majestic, and the Imperial; most were on Coleman Street and within a few blocks of the public hot water fountain and the mineral water wells—on a sort of bath-house row.

It has been closed since the late 1960s as a hotel, but parts of the first floor have held small businesses-beauty shops, an optometrist's office, an insurance agency, and restaurants.

For many years, the first-floor ballroom also featured class reunions and school dances, as well as public outside auction house usages.

Along with the decline of the hot mineral water industry after World War II and the advent of penicillin, many of the bath-house-related businesses closed and those older structures were gradually demolished or reconfigured.

In the early 1980s, a short-lived revival arose with some new bathing structures that did not succeed, and neither did one other attempt at that industry's revitalization in that 1990s.

Only the Buie-Allen Hospital (circa 1912), now closed, and a very few former boarding houses remain as apartments, as well as some of the intact late 19th-century commercial district and numerous early 20th-century residences constructed by doctors and many others who served the bath-house clientele.

Hot mineral water can still usually be obtained from a fountain outside the Marlin Chamber of Commerce in the 1929 pavilion when the city maintains that access.

Adjacent to the museum is a lively, active theater group, the Palace Theatre, that features plays and dinner-house productions, as well as occasional outside professional entertainment.

Four different teams trained in Marlin from 1904 to 1918: Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants.

The Chicago Tribune quoted Sullivan in an article published on February 7, 1904: "If I had looked the United States over for a spring training ground for a ball club, I do not believe I could have found a spot I would pick ahead of Marlin Springs ... [Charles] Comiskey asked me last December when I was coming to Texas to pick him out a place to train.

On the last full day (March 16), Manager Nixey Callahan had the team make a ten-mile round trip walk to the Brazos River after dinner.

[13] The Cardinals arrived in Marlin on March 6, 1905 and "a large gathering of local fans [were] on hand to welcome the big leaguers.

The baths not only put the players in first-class condition and remove any surplus weight, but they also tend to prevent soreness.

A styrofoam company, open in another building in Marlin's industrial park, caught fire and the remains were demolished.

More recent investments include the construction of a three-story, 60-room Best Western Hotel on Texas State Highway 6, at Farm-to-Market Road 147.

However, plans for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to open a medical facility for prisoners at the former Veterans' Affairs Hospital, expected to add an additional 100 to 150 jobs to the Marlin economy, did not materialize.

The Heart of Texas Council of Governments granted the city of Marlin $35,000 to remove 15 dilapidated buildings and structures in the town, which included 300 tons of debris.

She stated that she was motivated to run "on a desire to uplift and improve the community in which I live for all those who are currently here and those who seek to make a home here.

[26] The climate in the area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

He killed himself in September 2019 when Texas Rangers served him a warrant in connection of an investigation of sexual misconduct.

Around that time Texas officials were examining the possibility of converting a former Veterans Administration medical center in Marlin into a prison unit for psychiatric patients.