Lansford Map
Lansford is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, located 27 miles (43 km) northwest of Allentown and 9 miles south of Hazleton. Settled in 1845, Lansford was incorporated in 1876. In 1900, 4,888 people lived in Lansford; in 1910, 8,321 people inhabited it, and in 1940, 8,710 residents called Lansford home. The population was 4,230 at the 2000 census. Lansford grew with the development of local anthracite coal mines. Lansford was named after Asa Lansford Foster who was an advocate for merging the small "patch towns" that developed in the area surrounding the anthracite coal mines.
Lansford's first school was opened in 1847 on Abbott Street. Lansford's first church, the Welsh Congregational was built in 1850 and still stands today on West Abbott Street.
The old No. 9 Mine and Museum in Lansford, a deep mine which operated from 1855 to 1972, is now open as a tourist attraction offering tours of the mine and a wealth of information on local mining history. A museum occupying the mine's former Wash Shanty building on the site displays a large collection of mining artifacts. One of the local mine bosses, John P. Jones, was murdered in Lansford, reportedly in connection with labor union strife, attributed to members of a secret society known as the Molly Maguires, many of whom were put on trial and hanged in Carbon and Schuylkill Counties during the mid- to late 1870s.
Nearby cities include Summit Hill, Hazleton, West Hazleton, Parryville, Harleigh.