Haskell Free Library

When you think of the Canadian/American border, your mind probably races to the agonizing wait on the Peace Bridge, drug sniffing dogs, and lots of dudes with guns questioning you about just what the hell you're up to. There is one border crossing, though, that's quite a bit different. You see, it's located smack dab in the middle of a library that just so happens to be built on the border. Pinterest The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, an impressive building that dates back to 1904, was deliberately built on the border of Vermont and Quebec. Thanks to its odd location, it even has two completedly different addresses. But why? So that both countries could have access to the books in the library, and presumably, to give border patrol a massive headache. Carolyn Holland Via Wikipedia: The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was a gift from Mrs. Martha Stewart Haskell and her son Col. 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 and the Opera House opened in 1904 and the Library in 1905. Wikipedia Inside the building, a thick black line marks the international border, which cuts diagonally across the center of the library's reading room, which houses some 200,000 books in both French and English. In the actual Opera House section, both the stage and half the seating reside in Canada, while the rest sits in the United States. Thanks to it's strange proximity to the border, the library has two different entrances for residents of each country. Wikipedia The building, recognized as a historic site in both countries, is one of the few places that Canadians and Americans can mingle together without having to officially cross a border or go through customs, so long as they exit the same way they entered. Of course, the quaint library comes with some drawbacks. Namely, border jumpers, drug smugglers, and gun runners. “If you’d wanted to give future border security guards nightmares, the whole place could not have been set up any better,” wrote Canadian Geographic in 2010. Imgur A 2012 piece on the library by The National Post sheds some light on how the charming brick building has become used for some nefarious purposes: On March 25, 2011, reads a federal grand jury indictment, 46-year-old Annette Wexler and a co-conspirator allegedly checked into the Four Seasons Motel in Derby Line with a bag of handguns. Sometime that day, the pair allegedly walked into the Haskell Library with the guns, and when they walked out, they were holding $18,000 in cash. “If she is convicted, Wexler faces a maximum possible term of imprisonment of 10 years,” reads a statement by the United States Attorney... Libraries are way more awesome than I remember.