Parishioners of St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church, Lansford, yesterday observed its 110th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the ordination if its priest, the Rev. Thomas A. Derzack.

Following the celebratory Mass, over 400 parishioners, guests and friends attended a banquet at Jim Thorpe’s Memorial Hall.

The parish is nearly as old as the borough itself. Immigrants from Slovakia founded the first church in 1891.

The first church was destroyed by fire in 1907 and the cornerstone of the existing church was paid on May 30, 1908. It cost $150,000 to build the church once referred to as the “Cathedral in the Coal Region,” a timeless neo-Gothic design by architect William Leh of Bethlehem.