At one time Lansford had four banks, four movie theaters and four bowling alleys.

“There was a reason Lansford had four banks,” said Bruce Markovich of the Lansford Historical Society. “There was a lot of money here in this town. We were like the epicenter of what went on the (Panther) Valley.”

Those good times of the borough are depicted in Lansford’s Historical Museum on East Bertsch Street. An open house was held at the museum Sunday with several hundred people strolling through and seeing what amounts to a timeline of the borough’s being.

The museum is housed at the former Lansford Methodist Church. Its regular hours are Thursday from 6-8 p.m. During Christmas week, it will be open Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. A large Christmas display is one of the featured attractions.

Bill Harleman, president of the historical society, recalls when the group purchased the church building in 1998.

“I remember opening the doors, looking inside and wondering how we were going to fill all that space,” he said.

In its 21 years of existence, the museum has grown to such an extent that it appears even more space is needed.

Inside the museum are relics from the former Bright’s Department Store, which was that cornerstone of the downtown business district for many years. There is mining history shown. A section gives information about the Dorsey Brothers, who grew up in Lansford and became world famous with their big band music.

Memorabilia exists from former restaurants, record manufacturing firms, bakeries, clothing stores and other businesses that once gave the Carbon borough vitality.

Newspapers tell about major fires that happened in the community. One of the worst fires to devastate the business district of the towns happened Feb. 13, 1967, when an entire block of West Ridge Street became engulfed in flames.

Markovich pointed out a large telephone switchboard on display in the museum. He said it had once been used by a coal company, but then moved to the American Fire Company in Lansford where it was used for dispatching. “This was used to dispatch the fire company to the big fire in 1967,” Markovich said. Today dispatching is done by more modern methods through the Carbon County Communications Center.

Present at the open house were representatives from several other local historical societies. They were Maxine Vermillion from the Summit Hill Historical Society, Ed Hadnagy of the Nesquehoning Historical Society and Dale Freudenberger, president of the Tamaqua Historical Society. Freudenberger is also a member of the Lansford group.

Markovich spent the time at the open house telling stories about Lansford’s past.

One story was about the time Frank Sinatra came to Lansford with the Dorsey Brothers. He said his aunt, Helen Arner, and Mrs. Dorsey, took the musicians to the Margaret Wills ice cream shop/pharmacy for milkshakes. Sinatra wanted something stronger, so he said he wanted to go outside to smoke.

Outside, he asked where he could get a drink. It was a Sunday night, said Markovich, and all the bars were closed. However, Sinatra was informed that the Sokol Hall operated as a speak-easy and he could get a drink there.

Sinatra went to the Sokol Hall and knocked on the door. A man answered and asked Sinatra to identify himself. “I’m Frank Sinatra,” he said. The man who answered the door responded in disbelief, “And I’m Bing Crosby” and slammed the door shut.

“So it was a day Sinatra couldn’t get a drink in Lansford,” Markovich said.

Markovich said his mother was a friend of the Everly Brothers and as a result, they came to Lansford and played several songs at a dance.

One of the exhibits in the museum tells how child actress Shirley Temple modeled dresses made by the Kiddie Kloes garment mill in Lansford.

Lina Ingrassia of Lansford visited the museum with her son, Gio, age 6. She said, “This is beautiful. This is really nice. There’s so much to see.”

Another visitor was Joseph Sebelin of Jim Thorpe. He said, “The reason I came up is I saw the article in the newspaper about Christmas displays. I wasn’t let down. There were shining bright ornaments in boxes, bubble lights.”

He said he visited the museum in the past and is impressed how it has grown.

“It’s a real neat piece of Carbon County history. It’s really great they’re preserving Panther Valley history.”

The mining artifacts were especially moving to Sebelin since his grandfather was a deep coal miner. He died of the dreaded black lung disease. He recalled his grandfather’s funeral held in the private residence, as was customary at the time.

Markovich said he’s sad that Lansford doesn’t have the prosperity it once had.

He said the largest industry in Lansford today is rental housing. He said of the 1,300 properties in Lansford today, 704 of them are rental properties.