For years, nearly every event at the historic Vergennes Opera House has seen attendees with accessibility needs either turned away or a struggle up the stairs or to the auditorium, longtime volunteers said.

Come summer of 2026, that issue will be history, thanks to the efforts of a nonprofit residents group managing the building. Construction is underway for a $2.2 million All Access Project that will make the building ADA accessible.

The project has been long overdue, according to Gerianne Smart, president of the Friends of the Vergennes Opera House, a nonprofit created in 1993 that reopened the theater in 1997, an achievement celebrated with a sold-out Vermont Symphony Orchestra performance, according to its website.

The building was brought up to fire code in the 1990s and has sinc

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