Armada Real Estate

The first record of land purchased in the area that became Armada Township was made by John Proctor in 1825. Twenty-three more families had bought land in the area by 1832. Until 1832 the area was part of Ray Township. At that time a meeting was called to organize a separate township. The vote won by 2 and Armada Township was born. When the discussion of a name for the new township came up, legend says that "Hosea Northrup jumped up and shouted the name 'Armada'". The name was accepted. The meaning of the name is a mystery to this day. Scholars maintain the translation is lost.

The village, originally known as Burke's Corners, was founded by Elijah Burke in 1833. The village began to prosper when the old Indian trail, known today as Armada Ridge Road, was laid out as a roadway in the early 1830s. The road soon became part of the immigrant road network between Romeo and Port Huron.

Burke's Corners was briefly renamed Honeoye, for the New York hometown of several newly arrived residents. The village received its modern name of Armada when it was incorporated in the late 1860s. Armada by then had grown into a thriving village of 800 inhabitants.

The town at one time included a stagecoach stop, an opera house, a theater, seven grocery stores, three hotels, three hardware stores, a lumberyard, a grain mill, two implement dealers, a bakery, five doctors, several blacksmiths shops and a drug store.

The first school in Armada was a one-room schoolhouse at Selleck's Corners. Soon schools sprang up all around the township. These one room schools were consolidated during the 1940s and children were bused into town to attend the consolidated school district.

Armada's interest in education, literature and the arts was most evident when they persuaded Andrew Carnegie that they would support a library, if he would donate $8,000 towards the building of a permanent township library. The Armada Free Public Library was built in 1915 and is still being used to provide library service today.

A number of fraternal organizations, a literary club, a science club, and the Armada Cornet Band were among the social outlets for villagers and township residents.

A railroad, the Michigan Air-Line Railroad, connected Armada with the rest of the world. Passengers and freight were processed through the two-door depot at the foot of Church Street. A cartage company delivered the freight to uptown businesses by horse and wagon.