Long a symbol of cross-border friendship, a library split between Quebec and Vermont is thrust into geopolitical fray

A strip of fraying black tape on an old hardwood floor is the only evidence of the Canada-U.S. border as it cuts across the Haskell Free Library & Opera House.The boundary is easy to ignore, which is how Martha Stewart Haskell wanted it when she built her shrine to high culture straddling the frontier between Derby Line, Vt., and what is now Stanstead, Que., all the way back in 1904.