Mike and Roxanne travel east

Derby Line Sep 20, 2007

September 20, 2007

We head over to the B&B to meet with the Shannon clan and then we are headed to Derby Line. This is a little town in Northern Vermont that sits right on the Canadian border. In fact the building we are going to see is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House.

The Library/Opera House was built straddling the Canadian/US border. In fact the line runs diagonally through the building. The cornerstone was laid in 1901 and the Opera House opened in June of 1904.

The bottom floor is the library. It is the only library in the United States without any books as they are all on the Canadian side of the library. It is also the only library in Canada without a front door and that is on the US side. 75% of the books are in English and 25% in French.

Our guide today spoke mainly French so we had a translator who does not normally do the tours.

The Opera House is located on the upper two floors and is beautiful., There are three antique sets, an exquisite Rococo interior and a rare rollup curtain depicting a scene in Venice. The acoustics here are perfect. Plays are presented on the weekends from the end of April to the end of September.

The woodwork throughout the building was done by Carlos Haskell. The wood throughout the building is oak, maple, walnut and pine. The floors shine and staircases and door jams are marvelous.

We drove back towards North Troy and stopped at Big Falls and then stopped at several covered bridges on the way to Jay Peak.

Most of these bridges were truss bridges and were held together with wooden pegs.