Marlin, Texas
HISTORY
Welcome to Marlin, Texas
The Mineral Water City Of Texas.
Marlin, Texas is located in Falls County near the Falls on the Brazos River at the intersection of State Highways 6 & 7. Established as Sarahville de Viesca on the west bank of the Brazos River in 1834, the town was renamed Marlin to honor an early settler, John Marlin, in 1851. After incorporating in 1867, the Houston & Texas Central Railway reached Marlin in 1871, and a new commercial district popped up.
Healing hot mineral water was accidentally discovered in 1891 while drilling an artesian well. Thousands began traveling to Marlin to soak in the baths after the first of many bathhouses opened in 1895. As a result, the town's mineral water was saught out for the following 50 years.
During those 50 years, professional baseball teams would visit for spring training, and Conrad Hilton opened a Hilton hotel in 1930. Unfortunately, modern medicine contributed significantly to the decline of the hot mineral water industry, and most of the bathhouses in Marlin were closed by the 1960s.
PHOTOS
Sights Around Marlin, Texas
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Exit Arrow
Healing hot mineral water was accidentally discovered in Marlin, Texas in 1891, and people would come from all over to soak in the baths for the next 50 years. Baseball teams would come for spring training between 1908 and 1918. Even Conrad Hilton got in on the mineral water craze as he built a Hilton Hotel with a below-ground connection to The Sanatarium Bathhouse across the street.
The hotel closed in the 1960s, but it remains the tallest building in Marlin today at nine stories. The population of Marlin peaked in 1970. The Sanatarium Bathhouse burned down in the early 1990s.
The Exit Arrow is located in the drive-through for the Sanatarium Drugstore.
