St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

Boston, Massachusetts, 1919. A factory had just transitioned their business model from supporting the war effort toward making rum, only to discover that this too would be only a small window of opportunity. The magnanimous Temperance Movement was giving distillers one more year before shutting down the sale of all alcohol in the country. So, the Purity Distilling Company decided to increase production, making hay while the sun still shone. And shine it did that January morning, raising temperatures so quickly that the unthinkable happened.  The shotgun sound of bursting rivets was chased by 2.3 million gallons of molasses onto one of the most densely populated city streets in the US. The towering wave moved at an astonishing 35 miles an hour, swallowing and crushing everything and everyone in its path. Locals who had complained for months about the container’s shoddy construction had been unheard, as they were mere non-voting immigrants. In one way, many of these victims were now silenced permanently; in ano