Haskell Free Library and Opera House

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House has the Canada–US border drawn across its floor, as a thick black line running diagonally through the public rooms. The main entrance and most of the theatre seats are in Derby Line, Vermont; the books and the stage are in Stanstead, Quebec. It is sometimes called the only opera house in the United States with no stage.

The site was chosen on purpose. Martha Haskell and her son Horace gave the building as a memorial to their family, and placed it on what was then an open border so that Canadians and Americans could use it on equal terms. James Ball designed it in the Queen Anne Revival style, in Stanstead granite. The opera house opened on 7 June 1904 and the library in 1905. Both countries list it as a historic site.

The library holds more than 20,000 books in English and French, shelved apart because the two languages print titles on the spine in opposite directions. Membership is free to anyone who can prove they live within 50 kilometres.

The border has hardened around it. After the US travel ban of January 2017, families met inside to reunite across the line, until both border agencies began watching the entrances and such meetings ended. In 2025 the United States announced that Canadians could no longer use the main door without first passing US Customs. The library raised CA$170,000 in a week for an entrance on the Canadian side. Meanwhile visitors came in by an emergency door, climbing three flights of stairs, crossing the opera hall and walking down again. The permanent Canadian entrance was officially opened on 10 June 2026.