Haskell Opera House - Derby Line, VT - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

These border towns of the Province of Quebec and Vermont are proud of their international status. Derby Line's Haskell Opera House, Caswell Ave., has its entrance in the United States and its stage in Canada. There are many stories in this connection, such as the one about the American officers who sat writhing helplessly in the audience, while the fugitive they sought performed nonchalantly on the stage, saved from their clutches by the inviolable border-line. Legion Park (L), near the railway station, is an international World War Memorial, the boundary post in the park bearing the flags of both countries. In prohibition times the Canadian town of Rock Island, just across the line, attracted ale- drinkers from all over northeastern Vermont, and thousands of thirsting tourists sampled their first Frontenac or Molson's or Black Horse there. During that era the back roads of the region witnessed many thrilling races between booze-laden machines driven by reckless bootleggers and the Customs Patrol cars which guarded the border.

American-Guide-Series - Vermont: a Guide to the Green Mountain State, p.185

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The Opera House is the building to the right of the folks sitting at the border. I visited this spot specifically for the Opera House, now a shared library, during the COVID-19 pandemic when the border between the US and Canada was shut down. The gathering are friends and relatives not deterred by the closed border keeping up on the latest news and gossip. I did learn they were not even allowed to pass a piece of paper over the border without getting fined.

Book: Vermont Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 185 Year Originally Published: 1937

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