Azalia

Azalia—known as East Milan until 1878—is an unincorporated community in Milan Township, Monroe County, Michigan. It is located five miles south of Milan and about four miles north of Dundee. The community can be accessed via U.S. Highway 23 exit 22. It sits between sections 24 and 25 on the north branch of the Macon Creek. The ZIP code is 48110 and the FIPS place code is 04680. The community features the Azalia post office and a church. The Azalia United Methodist Church was originally founded as a Methodist Episcopal Church and began holding classes in the early 1850s. The church building was constructed in 1870.

History

The community was first known as East Milan, or Reeves Station where a family named Reeves established the Star Bending Company. A post office opened in 1866, largely through the efforts of Daniel T. Hazen, to avoid having to travel to West Milan to pick up mail. Steven Frink was the first postmaster, followed by Hazen in 1867, Joseph Meadows in 1872, John M. Lewis in 1877, and A.C. Reynolds in 1884. The "Toledo, Ann Arbor and Grand Trunk Railway" (later the "Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan Railway" and now the Ann Arbor Railroad, opened on June 8, 1878, with a station named "Azalia", named after one of the daughters of the president of the railroad, Azalia Ashley. Conforming to the railroad station, on September 1, 1887, the postmaster-general issued orders changing the name of the post office from East Milan to Azalia. The same order also renamed Meadows as postmaster.

External links

• County atlas of Monroe, Michigan / from recent and actual surveys and records under the superintendence of S. M. Bartlett for F. W. Beers. (Listed as East Milan)
• Milan Township History in History of Monroe County, Michigan, Wing, Talcott Enoch, ed. New York, Munsell & company, 1890. p. 593
• Azalia United Methodist Church