Editing Haskell Free Library and Opera House

{{Short description|Historic site in Quebec and Vermont}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox historic site
 | name = Haskell Free Library and Opera House<br/><small>{{langx|fr|Bibliothèque et salle d'opéra Haskell}}</small>
 | image = HaskellFreeLibraryandOperaHouse.JPG
 | caption = Haskell Free Library and Opera House in 2012
 | location = [[Stanstead, Quebec]], Canada<br />[[Derby Line, Vermont]], U.S.
 | coordinates = {{coord|45|0|20.5|N|72|5|52|W|display=inline,title}}
 | area =
 | architect = Nate Beach & James Ball
 | architecture = [[Romanesque Revival architecture|Romanesque Revival]], [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]], [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne Revival]]
 | built = 1904–1905
 | governing_body =
| designation1 = NHSC
| designation1_offname =Haskell Free Library and Opera House National Historic Site of Canada
| designation1_date = 15 November 1985
| designation2 = NRHP
| designation2_offname =
| designation2_date = 8 September 1976
| designation2_number = 76000143<ref name="nris">{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/VT/Orleans/state.html|title=National Register of Historical Places – VERMONT (VT), Orleans County|date=2007-02-07|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>
| designation3 = Quebec
| designation3_offname = Édifice Haskell Free Library and Opera House
| designation3_type = Classified heritage immovable
| designation3_date = 22 December 1977
| designation3_number = 93138<ref>{{cite web|last=Ministère de la Culture et des Communications|title=Édifice Haskell Free Library and Opera House|url=http://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=93138&type=bien|work=Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec|accessdate=27 September 2013|language=fr}}</ref> 
}}
The '''Haskell Free Library and Opera House''' ({{langx|fr|Bibliothèque et salle d'opéra Haskell}}) is a [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] building that straddles the [[Canada–United States border]], in [[Stanstead, Quebec#Rock Island|Rock Island]] (now part of [[Stanstead, Quebec|Stanstead]]), [[Quebec]], and [[Derby Line, Vermont|Derby Line]], [[Vermont]], respectively. The Opera House opened on June 7, 1904, having deliberately been built on the international border. It was declared a heritage building by both countries in the 1970s and 1980s.

The library has two different addresses and postal codes: 93 Caswell Avenue, Derby Line, Vermont, 05830 and 1 rue Church (Church Street), Stanstead, Quebec, J0B 3E2. In addition, the library has two different phone numbers (+1-[[area code 802|802]]-873-3022 and +1-[[area codes 819 and 873|819]]-876-2471) in its two respective countries.

==Overview==
The building was designed by architect James Ball in the [[Queen Anne style architecture|Queen Anne Revival]] style. The first floor houses the book collection and reading rooms and a 500-seat theater occupies the second and third floors.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Heintz |first=Paul |date=March 2, 2025 |title=A Border Runs Through It |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/27/nation/rising-border-tensions-threaten-library-straddling-vermont-quebec-line/ |work=The Boston Globe |pages= |volume=307 |issue=61}}</ref>

The [[library]] collection and the [[opera]] stage are located in [[Stanstead, Quebec|Stanstead]], but the main entrance and most opera seats are located in Derby Line. Because of this, the Haskell is sometimes called "the only library in the U.S.A. with no books" and "the only opera house in the U.S.A. with no stage".  

There is an entrance on the Canadian side of the building, which was used as an emergency exit prior to 2025.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last1=Guber |first1=Anna |date=April 9, 2025 |title=Haskell Free Library opens new entrance for Canadian patrons |url=https://www.mynbc5.com/article/haskell-free-library-opens-new-entrance-for-canadian-patrons/64435761 |access-date=May 6, 2025 |website=My NBC 5}}</ref><ref name="nyt-2025-05-30">{{Cite news |last=Onishi |first=Norimitsu |date=2025-05-30 |title=A Library on the Canada-U.S.Border Is Ensnared by Trump’s Foreign Policy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/world/canada/haskell-free-library-opera-house-quebec-vermont-border.html |access-date=2025-05-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Until 2025, patrons from Canada were permitted to enter the United States door without needing to report to customs by using a prescribed route through the sidewalk of rue Church (Church Street), provided that they return to Canada immediately upon leaving the building using the same route.<ref>{{cite web |title=Visiting Information |url=https://www.haskelloperahouse.org/visits.html |website=Haskell Free Library & Opera House|accessdate=May 13, 2024}}</ref> United States officials restricted most Canadians from entering via the main entrance in March 2025, except for Canadian patrons with a library card.<ref name="Tabachnick r007">{{cite web |last=Tabachnick |first=Cara |date=March 23, 2025 |title=For over a century, a U.S.-Canada cross-border library used a single entrance. Now, the U.S. says Canadians must build their own. |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/haskell-free-library-and-opera-house-canada-u-s-cross-border-separate-entrances/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=CBS News}}</ref><ref name="Lofaro">{{cite news |last1=Lofaro |first1=Joe |date=March 21, 2025 |title=U.S. authorities closing Canadian access to library that straddles Quebec-Vermont border |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/us-authorities-closing-canadian-access-to-library-that-straddles-quebec-vermont-border/ |access-date=March 21, 2025 |work=CTV News}}</ref> 

=== Library ===
The library, located on the first floor, has a collection of more than 20,000 books in French and English and is open to the public 38 hours a week. French and English books are co-filed. Because of [[Bookbinding#Titling|different language conventions]] in the direction of printing titles on spines—English books have titles written top-to-bottom, and French books bottom-to-top—the language of a book can be immediately determined.

A thick black line runs diagonally across the center of the library's reading room to mark the [[Canada–United States border]].<ref name="clui">{{Cite web |date=Winter 2015 |title=Chapter 2: The 45th Parallel |url=http://www.clui.org/section/united-divide-a-linear-portrait-usacanada-border-2 |website=United Divide: A Linear Portrait of the USA/Canada Border |publisher=The Center for Land Use Interpretation}}</ref> 

=== Opera house ===
The opera house on the second floor was rumored to be modeled after the old [[Boston Opera House (1909)|Boston Opera House]] in a somewhat scaled down fashion (it seats four hundred), but the Boston Opera house was built afterwards. A painted scene of [[Venice]] on the drop curtain and four other scenes by Erwin Lamoss (1901) and plaster scrollwork complete with plump [[cherubs]] built in [[Boston]] ornament the opera hall and balcony in this historic building, which was constructed with {{convert|2|ft|m|adj=mid|-thick|spell=in}} walls built of [[granite]] from Stanstead.

A thick black line runs beneath the seats of the opera house to mark the Canada–United States border.<ref name="clui" /> The stage and half of the seats are in Canada; the remainder of the opera hall is in the United States.

==History==
[[Image:HaskellLibraryBorderLine.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The international boundary is marked as a black line on the floor of the reading room of the Haskell Library. In this picture, Canada is on the right side of the line and the United States is on the left.]]
[[Image:The Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Canada is on the left side of the line and the United States is on the right. In this picture taken in 2018 the international boundary is marked outside by stones.]]

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was a gift from Martha Stewart Haskell and her son Horace "Stewart" Haskell. It was built in memory of her parents Catherine and Horace Stewart and her husband Carlos Freeman Haskell. The Haskells wanted Canadians and Americans to have equal access to the Library and Opera House and so they chose to build on the border. Construction began in 1901; the Opera House opened in 1904 and the Library in 1905.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://haskellopera.com/haskell-opera-house/ |title=Haskell Free Library and Opera House |date=2015 |publisher=Alpine Web Media, LLC |accessdate=April 10, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326014208/http://haskellopera.com/haskell-opera-house/ |archivedate=March 26, 2015 }}</ref> 

The Haskell family later donated the building to the towns of Derby Line and Rock Island in Haskell's memory; it is run by a private international board of four American and three Canadian directors.

The building is recognized as a historic site in both countries.  In the United States, it has been registered in the [[National Register of Historic Places]] since 1976. In Canada, it has been a provincial heritage site since 1977 and was designated a [[National Historic Sites of Canada|National Historic Site]] in 1985.<ref>{{CRHP|7322|Haskell Free Library and Opera House National Historic Site of Canada|4 March 2012}}</ref> 

Following the [[Trump travel ban]] in January 2017, the library served as a site for international reunions, as it is partly in Canada and partly in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Torbati |first=Yeganeh |date=2018-11-29 |title=Separated by travel ban, Iranian families reunite at border library |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-ban-insight-idUSKCN1NX1P2 |access-date=2021-01-05 |work=Reuters |language=en}}</ref> The play ''A Distinct Society'' by Kareem Fahmy is based on the family reunions that take place at the library.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Distinct Society |url=https://newplayexchange.org/script/2016618/a-distinct-society |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=New Play Exchange }}</ref> Officially, family reunions and cross-border visits are no longer allowed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Library |url=https://www.haskelloperahouse.org/library.html |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Haskell Free Library & Opera House }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Library staff imposed other security restrictions and gave U.S. and Canadian officials advance notice of large gatherings.<ref name=nyt-2025-05-30/>

In January 2018, a man from [[Montreal]] pleaded guilty to charges related to the smuggling of handguns from Vermont into Quebec in 2010 and 2011. He and accomplices had illegally brought handguns, which had been purchased in the United States, into Canada via a scheme that involved hiding the handguns in the bathroom of the library.<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/quebec-man-pleads-guilty-smuggling-over-100-handguns-vermont-quebec |title=Quebec Man Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Over 100 Handguns From Vermont to Quebec |publisher=U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Vermont |website=justice.gov |date=January 29, 2018 |accessdate=February 27, 2025}}</ref>

The library was closed due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] in March 2020 and did not fully reopen until spring 2022.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2023-06-21 |title=The Library & The Law |url=https://www.writerstheatre.org/blog/library-law/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Explore the Art}}</ref>

In March 2025, at the start of the [[second presidency of Donald Trump]], the United States government announced its intent to restrict Canadians from using the main entrance starting October 1, unless they first passed through customs.<ref name="Tabachnick r007" /><ref name="Overland z113">{{cite web |last=Overland |first=Martha Ann |date=March 23, 2025 |title=Locals feel a loss as the U.S. limits Canadian access to cross-border library |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/03/23/nx-s1-5337411/library-us-canada-border-haskell |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=NPR}}</ref> Until then, the only Canadians who could access the library via the main entrance were library card holders and staff.<ref name="Lofaro" /><ref name=nyt-2025-05-30/><ref name="Shingler Watts 2025">{{Cite news |last1=Shingler |first1=Benjamin |last2=Watts |first2=Rachel |date=March 21, 2025 |title=U.S. limits Canadian access to iconic Stanstead, Que., border-straddling library, officials say |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/us-border-canada-quebec-stanstead-library-1.7489528 |access-date=March 21, 2025 |work=CBC News}}</ref> U.S. officials cited security concerns as a reason for the change, though library trustees claimed that there had been very few security issues<ref name="Overland z113" /> and that they could not recall any instances of drug smuggling.<ref name="Tabachnick r007" />  In response, the library announced plans to renovate an entrance on the Canadian side,<ref name="Tabachnick r007" /><ref name="Shingler Watts 2025" /> and an emergency door was reopened so non-member Canadians could visit the library.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=nyt-2025-05-30/> The library also launched a fundraiser for a permanent, accessible entrance on the Canadian side, with author [[Louise Penny]] making a major donation;<ref>{{cite web |last=Rowe |first=Daniel J. |date=March 26, 2025 |title=Library straddling U.S./Canada border blows past its fundraising goals after Canadians' access limited |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/library-straddling-uscanada-border-blows-past-its-fundraising-goals-after-canadians-access-limited/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=CTVNews}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Cecco | first=Leyland | title=Dismay as cross-border library caught in US-Canada feud: ‘We just want to stay open’ | website=the Guardian | date=April 13, 2025 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/13/us-canada-border-library | access-date=May 30, 2025}}</ref> the library initially planned to raise CA$100,000 but was able to raise CA$170,000 within a week.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rowe |first=Daniel J. |date=March 26, 2025 |title=Library straddling U.S./Canada border blows past its fundraising goals after Canadians' access limited |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/library-straddling-uscanada-border-blows-past-its-fundraising-goals-after-canadians-access-limited/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=CTVNews}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Mccully |first=Matthew |date=March 30, 2025 |title=Haskell Library fundraiser shatters goal as cross-border solidarity grows |url=https://www.sherbrookerecord.com/haskell-library-fundraiser-shatters-goal-as-cross-border-solidarity-grows/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Sherbrooke Record}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Architecture|Canada|NRHP|Vermont|United States}}
* [[Line house]], a building that straddles an international boundary.
* [[Baarle-Nassau]] and [[Baarle-Hertog]], two communities with a complicated borderline between [[Netherlands|The Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]].
* [[Collins–Valentine line]], the boundary between Quebec and the states of Vermont and New York, surveyed in the early 1770s.
* [[Estcourt Station, Maine]] (population 4) and [[Pohénégamook|Pohénégamook, Quebec]]
* [[La Cure]], a village divided between [[Switzerland]] and [[France]]; [[Hotel Arbez]] is bisected by the boundary, as are at least two residences and a pub.
* [[Paul VI Audience Hall]], located partially in the [[Vatican City]], but mostly in [[Rome]], [[Italy]]: the Italian part of the building is treated as an extraterritorial area of the Holy See and is used by the Pope as an alternative to Saint Peter's Square when conducting his Wednesday morning General Audience.
* [[List of historic places in Estrie]]
* [[List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Quebec]]
* [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Orleans County, Vermont]]
* [[Transnational marriage]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons and category|Haskell Free Library and Opera House|Haskell Free Library and Opera House}}
* {{wikinews inline|Canada, U.S. to tighten security between 'cross-border' library}}
* {{official website|https://www.haskelloperahouse.org}}
** [https://www.haskelloperahouse.org/visits.html Visiting procedures on its official web site]

{{NRHP in Orleans County, Vermont}}
{{NHSC}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haskell Free Library And Opera House}}
[[Category:1904 establishments in Quebec]]
[[Category:1904 establishments in Vermont]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Derby, Vermont]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Estrie]]
[[Category:Line house]]
[[Category:Canada–United States border]]
[[Category:Education in Estrie]]
[[Category:Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont]]
[[Category:Heritage buildings of Quebec]]
[[Category:Libraries in Quebec]]
[[Category:Libraries in Vermont]]
[[Category:Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont]]
[[Category:Music venues completed in 1904]]
[[Category:Music venues in Quebec]]
[[Category:National Historic Sites in Quebec]]
[[Category:Theatres on the National Historic Sites of Canada register]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Orleans County, Vermont]]
[[Category:Opera houses in Canada]]
[[Category:Opera houses in Vermont]]
[[Category:Opera houses on the National Register of Historic Places]]
[[Category:Public libraries in Vermont]]
[[Category:Queen Anne architecture in Canada]]
[[Category:Queen Anne architecture in Vermont]]
[[Category:Stanstead, Quebec]]
[[Category:Theatres completed in 1904]]
[[Category:Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Estrie]]
[[Category:Vermont culture]]