Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A new entrance to the iconic library that sits on the border between Quebec and Vermont is now welcoming Canadian bookworms after the U.S. limited entry to the building last year.
With one door opening to Stanstead, Que., and the other to Derby Line, Vt., the more-than-a-century-old library has long been a symbol of harmony between Canada and the U.S. A thick black line runs across the floor of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House to show where one country ends, and the other begins.
“Even though the Haskell library now has two different entrances, inside, we are people who appreciate literature, arts and culture. There are no divisions,” said Sylvie Boudreau, the president of the library’s board of trustees.
She spoke on Wednesday at the inauguration ceremony for the library’s “Canadian Door,” a project just over a year in the making.
It came to be after the Trump administration barred Canadians last year from using the library’s main entrance on the Vermont side.
On Wednesday, Stanstead Mayor Jody Stone said the community experienced uncertainty, frustration, and even a feeling of loss, following that announcement.
“You have protected the mission of Haskell, you have protected a symbol,” he said, addressing the library’s staff and volunteers.
Various Canadian and American political representatives attended Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony hosted by Quebec television personality Jean-René Dufort. Many spoke of the strength of the friendship between the two border communities and the library’s enduring status as a beacon of goodwill.
“Friendship will always be stronger than bureaucracy,” said Dufort in his opening speech.
‘A place that was built to be shared’
Since October 2025, Canadians wishing to use the library’s main entrance have had to present themselves at a port of entry and go through U.S. customs. A temporary entrance on the Stanstead side was made available to Canadians while the library renovated the Canadian Door.
At the time, U.S. Customs and Border Protection told CBC it was limiting access to the sidewalk that wraps around a side of the library and connects Canada to the U.S. due to a “rise in illicit cross-border activity.”
Vermont state treasurer Mike Pieciak said the change created more than simply a logistical challenge. All of a sudden, library staff had to find a way to make sure library-goers left through the same door they came in, depending on their nationality.
“It raised the question of dignity,” Pieciak said at the inauguration ceremony. “Because dignity ensures that people are welcomed … It means treating our partners as equals in a place that was built to be shared.”
Though he was not in attendance, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders shared a message with the audience via video on Wednesday, calling the library “beautiful” and “unique.”
“At a time when there are people seeking to stoke divisions among communities and between countries, I want to congratulate the Haskell staff for doing exactly the opposite, creating a welcoming space that brings people together,” said Sanders.
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border between Quebec and Vermont, with the main entrance just steps into Derby Line, Vt. As of Oct. 1, the U.S. government is limiting Canadian access to the entrance — and the library says it ’ll cost around $500,000 to build a new one because the library is built out of granite.
