And you think you've got US immigration problems...

Quote: Where can you watch a play where the stage is in Canada but the audience sits in the United States?

This unique experience takes place at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House that straddles the Vermont-Quebec border. Officials say it's the only public institution in the world that straddles a border like that.

The library/opera house, which has been featured in Ripley's Believe it Or Not, was built between 1901 and 1904 and sits in the communities of Derby Line, Vermont and Rock Island, Quebec. When you walk into the building you even see a boundary line painted on the floor running through the reading room and the 400-seat opera house. The entrance to the library is in the U.S., but the 16,000 volumes of books in the stack room are wholly in Canada. And the stage and few seats of the opera house are in Canada while most of the seats are in America.

The building was a gift from Martha Stewart Haskell, a Canadian who had the library/opera house built in honour of her husband Carlos, who was American. The first show in the building, which was modelled on the old Boston Opera House, was in 1904 and featured The Columbian Minstrels. The library/opera house underwent renovations in May 1997 and involved government officials from both Canada and the U.S. Apparently there were a lot of legalities to overcome because of different building code regulations, but the job was completed. At one point an elevator built in Canada had to be lowered in by crane from the Canadian side of the border across the boundary line so that the American crew could install it. Building regulations wouldn't allow it any other way.

The opera house has featured speakers, plays, and concerts for more than 90 years. At one point there were discussions about having The Beatles perform there because one of them was having immigration hassles. The group would have been able to legally perform on the Canadian stage for American audiences. However, the plans fell through.

Although a great deal of cooperation has taken place in maintaining this unique institution, there are still different prices based on the currency you pay. Admission to a 1997 show was eight dollars (U.S.) for adults, but Canadians had to ante up $10.