Mulias and Ellias was a popular department store, founded by Sadie Mulias, from the early 1900s until it fell victim to a disastrous evening of June 24, 1987 fire that also obliterated nearly every building along the west side of West Jefferson Avenue between West Road and Saint Joseph Street.
The fire
The flames ignited in two different spots in the basement where excess stock was stored. Tragically, the fire alarms didn't go off properly, which could've spared the entire block and the ones that did go off were located in, of all places, Woodhaven. By the time trucks responded, the building was already well engulfed and had grown to four alarms, resulting in low water pressure, in turn resulting in a fireboat being brought in from Detroit to act as a fifth alarm, quelling most of the fire from two blocks away.
To this day, the cause of the fire is not 100% assured and Downtown Trenton would nearly never recover from this tragedy, in fact, to this date there is still a large gap in the West Jefferson streetwall, even though a restaurant has since been built on a portion of the site.
