Haskell Free Library and Opera House

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The international border is marked on the floor of the Haskell Library reading room. Canada is on the right and the United States is on the left.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House ( French : Bibliothèque et salle d'opéra Haskell ) is a public library and opera house , which at the international border in the Canadian Stanstead , Province of Quebec and in the American Derby Line , State of Vermont is. The building opened on June 7, 1904 and was built in a Victorian style.

The library and opera stage are in Stanstead, but the entrance and most of the opera seats are in Derby Line. For this reason, the house is sometimes referred to as "the only library in the US with no books" and "the only opera house in the US without a stage". Due to its location, the house has both a Canadian (1 rue Church, Stanstead, Québec) and an American (93 Caswell Avenue, Derby Line, Vermont) address. A thick black line that runs under the seats of the opera and above the center of the library reading room marks the state border.

The library has a collection of over 20,000 books in French and English. It is open to the public 36 hours a week. In 1977 the building was declared a Historic Site of the Canadian Province of Quebec and entered in the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec . The building has been on the United States' National Register of Historic Places since 1976 and on the Lieu historique national du Canada / National Historic Site of Canada since 1985 .

history

The building was created by American sawmill Carlos Haskell and his Canadian wife Martha Stewart Haskell for use by people from both countries. The profits from the opera business were intended for the maintenance of the free library.

The Haskell family later dedicated the building to the Derby Line and Stanstead parishes in memory of the builder. The house is currently managed by an international board of four American and three Canadian directors.

Web links

Commons : Haskell Free Library and Opera House  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence


Coordinates: 45 ° 0 ′ 20.7 "  N , 72 ° 5 ′ 51.6"  W.