Highway 6 continues south from our Riesel page. Version 2.0 of this page integrates the H-E-B page, updates Shell (as the new CEFCO), Walmart (road info), and adds Marlin Unit.
Apple-Sport Chevrolet / 1635 N. Highway 6 Bypass
The first time I saw this car dealership was around the mid-2010s, shortly after it rebranded from Stanley Chevrolet Buick. In recent years, under Apple-Sport, expansion has been done to the north to include a new Ford dealership.
Valero / 1103 Highway 6
This Valero features "Ruby's Food Mart #3". It was not originally a Valero (only gaining that name after the mid-2000s) and was probably originally a Diamond Shamrock before but I can't confirm that 100%.
Executive Inn & Suites / 100 FM 147
Catty corner to the Valero is the Executive Inn. Originally a Best Western (Best Western Marlin Inn & Suites) and one of the decidedly more modern hotels in the area (interior corridors, three stories, opened 2010), it lost the Best Western branding in 2019 or 2020.
Marlin High School / 1400 Capps Street
It moved from whatever Wikipedia depicts it as years ago, probably in the 1970s.
DQ / 1427 Live Oak Street
Originally built as similar restaurant Dairy Palace in 1986 (had other locations in Texas at one time but I can only find one today), this became a Dairy Queen (relocating from a store north of downtown) in the mid-1990s. A renovation presumably happened around this time.
State Highway 7 is the fastest way toward the Marlin commercial core. There is a very old H-E-B which I have covered here.
McDonald's / 1430 Live Oak Street
Marlin's own McDonald's opened in 2003. It removed the "mansard roof" in 2012. It may or may not have been the first McDonald's in Marlin (see Walmart entry below).
CEFCO / 107 S. Hwy. 6 Bypass
This gas station replaced the place where Walmart's road signage was in 2010, and featured Young's Market and Subway with a Shell gas station. In late 2020, CEFCO bought Young's Market and by mid-2021 had branded the entire center as a CEFCO (it still has the Subway). CEFCO also added a larger sign. The Subway restaurant has the address of 105 S. Hwy. 6.
Walmart / 600 S. Hwy. 6
Opened October 1980 as Wal-Mart Discount City #320, this has gotten upgraded and repainted a few times. In the late 1990s it was repainted from brown to blue and, I believe it had a McDonald's inside. Unfortunately, the only "proof" I can find is from the Wal-Mart branded Rand McNally road atlas, which indicates it had a snack bar inside, but the tax records for the state don't indicate a McDonald's operating inside.
Past this point, all semblance of a full divided freeway disappears as the highway continues south from Marlin. Around the very early 2000s (probably year 2000, give or take), the freeway was widened toward the beginning of the bypass, but until the late 2000s, the highway was two lanes heading toward Reagan. The construction destroyed a 2.5-mile stretch of FM 234, which ran parallel to the highway as a dirt road (on the other side of an abandoned railroad right of way), and probably was an older segment of the highway at some point. The divided highway bypassed Reagan, with the southbound access only being a ramp to FM 413, which it goes over. There are two northbound access points to Reagan but neither go toward FM 413 directly.
Marlin Unit / 2893 Hwy. 6
Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison, used as a transfer facility site for female prisoners.
Past this point, all semblance of a full divided freeway disappears as the highway continues south from Marlin. Around the very early 2000s (probably year 2000, give or take), the freeway was widened toward the beginning of the bypass, but until the late 2000s, the highway was two lanes heading toward Reagan. The construction destroyed a 2.5-mile stretch of FM 234, which ran parallel to the highway as a dirt road (on the other side of an abandoned railroad right of way), and probably was an older segment of the highway at some point. The divided highway bypassed Reagan, with the southbound access only being a ramp to FM 413, which it goes over. There are two northbound access points to Reagan but neither go toward FM 413 directly.
Texas Pneumatic Tools / 1084 S. Hwy. 6 South
A small but attractive campus that manufactures air tool-related products, and has a number of trees around it. Before the construction tore out the trees around the highway it was one of the best parts of the drive to Waco, and going northbound now the highway peels away from it.
Directly across from TPT is the Aggie Barn, which used to be just north of it.
In Reagan proper there are only two things worth mentioning, a post office built in the late 2000s with laughably few hours (two hours a day, except on Saturday, where there's three), and an abandoned Exxon, done up in the color scheme Exxon stations used to be done until around the mid-2000s. This was last Henneke Kountry Store, and operated as such from 1996 to 2003 (when it was operating, it did not have an official address).
South of Reagan, the Little Brazos River is here, and an older segment of the highway is visible to the west. Before the widening in the late 2000s (previously mentioned), a section of old highway was on the north side (the actual bridge across Little Brazos was removed years ago). Despite most of the pictures being unfortunately gone, you can see the "divide" on the north side abandoned road here.
Highway 6 continues to the south in our next section, Highway 6 in Hearne and Calvert.