The little known little library that's in two countries at once.

In the northern reaches of Vermont, snug up against the Quebec border, exists a small library that straddles the international border between Canada and the United States. It is the only library in the world to simultaneously operate in two countries.

Somehow this signage chaos makes sense.

The Haskell Free Library has two addresses, two phone numbers, and two doors of entry between Darby, VT, and Stanstead, QC. Built at the turn of the twentieth century with funds provided by Mrs. Martha Haskell and her son Col. Horace Haskell, the building was deliberately built diagonally across the border between the two nations so that the locals on both sides would have access to educational and cultural resources.

To further add to the curiosity of it all, the Haskell Free Library also has a 400-seat Opera House built on the second floor. That's correct--in a reading space that's usually meant to be quiet, there's an opera house squarely on top of it.

The reason? Instead of constantly looking for money, Martha Haskell intended for the library to be supported through the funds generated by performances at the opera house. Alas, as tastes changed and movies became favored from the 1920s onward, it turned out that the library ended up supporting the performances upstairs.

Visiting the library, one will find a line of electrical tape cutting through the floor dilineating the two countries apart. (There's also a tape line under a row of seats in the opera house.)

Of course Canada would have the more comfortable seating.

The tape is a fairly modern addition to the property. A small fire in the 1970s led to insurance claims with both Canadian and American companies. Insurance companies aren't always the most helpful sort, which led to seemingly endless bickering about which company was responsible for repairs. After repairs finally occurred, the library paid for a surveyor to accurately detail the border inside the building, and assure future insurance claims went to the correct country's company.

Visitors from both countries are allowed inside to freely roam wild across the border to check out books or watch a show. Yet, in a post-9/11 world, immigration and security forces from both countries are typically parked outside both doors to make sure the visitor that went in one nation's door also exits the very same door.

According to Matthew Farfan, President of the Board of Trustees at the library, who was interviewed by Atlas Obscura, the people operating the building aren't interested in politics or borders or security forces.

"This is a friendly institution," Farfan told the site. "We’re not in the policing business."


Photos:
Shuttershock/Erika J. Mitchell
Flickr/Chaloos