2018 - October 20th - Derby Line, Vermont's Haskell Free Library & Opera House and Burlington, Vermont

Today we were to head to Stowe, Vermont. However, we had found an interesting stop in Derby Line, Vermont, the home of The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, shared by Canada and The United States. The four of us were talking and we all decided that if possible we would try and maneuver the plan schedule and go there. It works, so off we go to Derby Line, Vermont! The pride of Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House was constructed deliberately astride the boundary line separating Canada from the United States. The Haskell has been classified a historic site by the governments of Canada, the United States, and the Province of Quebec. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was the gift of Martha Stewart Haskell and her son, Colonel Horace Stewart Haskell. It was dedicated to Mrs. Haskell’s late husband, Carlos, a prominent merchant. The family’s aim was to provide the border communities with a centre for learning and cultural enrichment. The opera house, located on the second floor of the building, also had a practical purpose. According to the original charter, dated 1908, it was to be “forever managed and used for the support and maintenance” of the library, located downstairs. Nowhere else in the world can one sit in an opera house that is literally split in two by an international border, where most of the audience sits in the U.S. to watch a show on a stage in Canada. Nowhere else can one find such an unusual library. The front door is in the U.S., the circulation desk and all of the books are in Canada, and the reading room is international.

This magnificent building is fabulous with its both Victorian and Georgian architectural designs with local Stanstead grey granite on the exterior, and rare native woods, stained glass, mosaics and tin ceilings on the interior. The entrance doors each have engravings: "Haskell Free Library" and "Opera House".

Throughout the interior is a black line demarking the border of Canada and the United States. We had to take the cheezie picture of standing with one foot in Canada and the other in the USA. Ray and Sandra can now say that they have been in Canada … and didn't even have to show a passport!

The atmosphere in the library is luxurious yet restive. There are fireplaces and sofas for reading. As we entered the beautiful front door of the Haskell, display cabinets and historical documents greet us. The librarian counter/circulation desk are right in front of us with what I'm pretty sure is a Canadian Moose head looking over us! The rooms have sunshine coming though the beautiful stained glass at the top of the massive windows. This is a complete library with several rooms filled with books. Families and others in the communities of both countries frequent the library regularly.The reading room and many others have fireplaces in them.

Even though we saw border patrol cars throughout this small town, the crossing between Canada and the US is open with no border patrol guards, only flower pots and rocks. The delineation with the these is a sight we don't see in our every day lives.

Just walk through the decorative rocks and flower pots to be Canada! This is a view of Stanstead, Quebec from Derby Line, Vermont. Unfortunately the Opera House was not open. I believe the only way to see inside is to attend a performance. On the road again heading for Burlington, Vermont, destination the Ethan Allen Homestead. 

Ethan Allen, who has become a folk hero in Vermont, was an unusually flamboyant backwoodsman-turned- statesman from Connecticut. He was one of the early inhabitants of Burlington and lived on his property next to the Winooski River from 1787 until his death in 1789. Persistent and independent like many frontiersmen, Ethan was, however, unusually well-read and articulate for a settler of the northern frontier.

The museum is interesting to wander through and learn about Ethan Allen and life in the 1700's. The gardens and lawns of the home are the first thing to see when going out of the museum. On this day there was a Native American demonstration including cooking and shooting.

The house is a modest post-and-beam structure, with a gable roof and clapboarded exterior. The interior is modest with quite a few rooms and artifacts of the time period including the original writing desk of Ethan Allen. We were able to enjoy the Ethan Allen Homestead property that has walking trails and borders the Winooski River. It was great to add nature and walking to our day! Finishing up at The Homestead we continued into Burlington proper. We went to Burlington's Church Street Marketplace. It is a commercial endeavor that has shops, restaurants and art that is several blocks long. We walked and "window-shopped" several of the places. The original high-trafficked Church Street was transformed into a pedestrian mall in 1981.

At the end of the mall sits the church which the street gained it's name.

One of the art pieces along Church Street Marketplace is a statue of "Big" Joe Burrell. He was Burlington's larger-than-life blues singer and saxophonist. Until his death, Burrell played a gig every Thursday night at the Halvorson’s Upstreet Café which this statue was commissioned by and stands in front of this Café.

Burlingtion City Hall is also on the mall and is a stunning looking building in the traditional New England look. On each side of the building are art pieces, one a bear and her cub and the other, a deer.

The entire Church Street Marketplace mall is paved with bricks. One inset is the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere. There is a line down the center of the pedestrian mall made of beige bricks and is what the Burlington residents call an Earth Line. It’s a line of longitude that runs through Burlington. It was a great day once again. The captioned photo album link is a click away!