Dale Freudenberger of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor offers this timeline of the Old Jail's history:

1876: Lansford Borough is incorporated.May 2, 1877: Borough decides to build a lock-up, or jail house.May 11, 1877: Council approves the Building Committee's plans. Building committee members were Frank Zehner, Charles Edwards, and Morgan Price.June 6, 1877: Council awards the construction bid to William Herman Reibe after seeking proposals to build the lock-up.Council selects the site, at East Patterson and Walnut streets. The Building committee buys the property for $100.Late 1877: Reibe begins construction of the $900 stone building, using rock that was likely found and quarried in the Panther Creek Valley. He is paid $400 up front and $500 upon completion.G.W. Hadesty is hired to install plumbing in the new facility.The new lock-up features three jail cells on the first floor and council chambers on the second floor. Council furnishes the chambers with a meeting table and seven chairs, purchased at a cost of $10.50.Nov. 7, 1877: The first official council meeting was held in the new quarters.The Great Coal Miners' Strike of 1902: Striking mine workers who were arrested overcrowded the lock-up. The overflow of prisoners required that some of them be held in the second floor Council Chambers.Sometime before 1910: The borough constructed a new building to serve as the town's lock-up. The now-vacant old stone jail house was acquired by the Edelstein family. Julius Edelstein was a hotel owner and his son Eugene was a lawyer. The old lockup served as Edelstein's law office for many years.At other points in time, the old stone jail house also served as a candy and cigar store, a barber shop run by Bill Leidich, and even a Chinese laundry.The Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery in Summit Hill contains the grave of a Chinese laundry owner with his tombstone written in Chinese. Historians believe that it may be the grave of the laundry owner from Lansford.