I have lived at the 817 Saint Paul Madison apartment complex (Mount Vernon Apartments) for three…read moreand a half years - basically the entire time I lived in Baltimore.
During that period I had only the best of experience, both with the management and the support staff. Several issues that I had to deal with (eg stuck doors, water pressure, clogged toilets/drains, ...) were all dealt within days, usually a day if outside the weekends, despite none being urgent.
I was always informed in advance of major maintenance (cutting off the water or requirement not to flush the water in order for emergency maintenance on canalization to be performed) and on several occasions, the management office helped me to resolve issues related to my difficult to anticipate move in/out and out of town schedule. In addition to that, throughout my stay, tenants moving elsewhere had their sales/giveaway offers broadcast by the management, which allowed me to acquire some nice furniture and electronics from a couple of floors away, for a good price and sometimes even free.
Which brings me to another point - community. People living there are friendly and nice. Most of them study at Hopkins or Peabody or are young professionals who have just moved to Baltimore.
Amenity-wise, the entrance door is protected by entrance fobs and keys (none of which ever malfunctioned - props to that). The hallway has a Luxer One parcel delivery service, that allows you to receive your packages without having to be at home, letting anyone enter your apartment and without fear of them getting stolen. The building provides a dedicated trash and recycling room on each floor (yay), that gets taken out and cleaned in a timely manner. The floors throughout the building are washed several times a week, keeping this place always clean and tidy. The laundry room is equipped with professional-grade washing and drying machines. The fire alarm is sensitive (beware of it when you cook or turn on the window heating unit for the first time in the year), and networked, meaning it will call firefighters automatically if not turned off in a timely manner. Finally, each apartment gets bug-busted every six months and with trash taken out regularly, no rats would even get close. At no point, I have encountered or heard of any pest-related issues.
For an additional 50$ a month the apartment as well allows larger pets (cats, dogs, ...). Between the tenants, the floors are re-carpeted and doors/windows/walls - repainted.
Now, you need to be aware that this building shares a lot of downsides with all other older buildings in the historic Mt Vernon quarter. Wooden windows are quite dated and hence do not provide a perfect seal and have only simple glass in them. This means you might want to add insulation in winter. This also means that you might want to consider the noise level in the apartments facing Saint Paul Street, that gets quite heavy traffic in the morning, especially if your apartment is on the lower levels. Heating/cooling is performed by a window unit, that might be sometimes hard to set properly. Due to the electricity bill being yours to pay, you might need to prepare for a higher electric bill you would have had in a centrally cooled apartment complex. However, with my studio, I have never run over $60 for electricity, even cooking at home and heating/cooling the apartment almost continuously during the coldest/hottest weeks.
Overall, I would greatly recommend both the 817 Apartment complex and the Mount Vernon Apartments managment - I didn't have any issues with them and my time in Mt Vernon apartments was quite enjoyable!
