Nearly 270 years after it was built, Ogle Hall in Annapolis entered the 21st century Thursday with wheelchair-accessible renovations for the disabled Navy veterans who gather there.

Wielding 2-foot-long, 15-pound, blue and yellow scissors, U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association members cut the ribbon guarding the building’s new elevator in a ceremony.

Before, veterans in wheelchairs couldn’t make it inside.

“Now they can come in here with dignity and not be embarrassed or ashamed,” said Capt. George Watt Jr., president of the alumni association, this week.

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“That’s why we said we would do it. We didn’t have to, but it was the right thing to do.”

The academy was not required to make the building handicapped-accessible — despite the federal Americans with Disabilities Act — because the hall’s age allowed it to be exempt. 

Ogle Hall, also called Alumni House, serves as a meeting place for alumni association members and is owned by the U.S. Naval Academy. The $2 million renovations began in April 2007.

After seeing an elderly visitor fall because the building had no railings, after a staff member had a stroke and could no longer climb the stairs, and after a father couldn’t bring in his daughter who uses a wheelchair, association members said enough was enough, Watts said.

The renovations included wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, new heating and air-conditioning systems and new electrical wiring.

Robert Ogle, a descendent of original occupant Gov. Sam Ogle, showed up to the ceremony unexpectedly, saying he heard about it on the radio in the morning.

“I believe they stayed true to the house,” Ogle said. “They really have gone out of their way to maintain the integrity of the original home.”

Called the oldest continually occupied house in the region, three-story Ogle Hall survived two fires and housed three Maryland governors. Watt said it was originally bought for 70 tons of Baltimore pig iron.

Tim Kobosko, project manager and an alumni association member, added the project wasn’t just about the retirees.

“Some young alumni come back from the war handicapped and couldn’t get into the house,” he said.

“That struck a nerve and it became an emotional issue.”

carrie.wells@baltimoreexaminer.com