Very quaint. The building is in the process of a lot of repairs notably the elevator - there is only one elevator that works so far and a second freight lever elevator used for freights that I was told will be upgraded this year into a regular elevator. The single elevator during busy hours tends to get slow and occasionally smells funny. There are random water shutdowns as previous comments have noted in the past years - however, I do believe they are doing a better job of notifying residents a few hours before these water shutdowns occur. They also provide bottled water for these shutdowns. I have seen one roach in my apartment so far, and I suspect its mainly to do with the age of the building. As soon as I put up roach repellants, I have seen none. The staff are all incredibly kind though (a huge shoutout to Maya!) and I do see the effort that is put into creating a community within the appartment. Wifi is also not included so expect about $55/month for that under Xfinity. I liked how many outlets there are in an efficiency - there are plenty! Construction work that occurs at the school can be heard and can be disrupting if you are sensitive to noise. - From a verified resident on ApartmentRatings

I lived here for 6 months and dont have much to complain about. Maintenance issues were fixed quickly, and the move-out process was smooth.

They abandoned their renters during COVID and there was no running water while I was moving out of my apartment.

Management is nothing but dishonest. At the end of my two year lease, I received an email from management saying that i haven’t been paying the full amount every month. i argued with them for a while because my contract said otherwise, but they apparently didn’t have a copy of that contract. Afterwards, they took the “outstanding balance” out of my security deposit.

I’ve lived here for about a year and only had a positive experience. I also like that it is right across the street from the campus. Would recommend.

I have been living here for about two years, location is right across from the campus, New management has been very helpful. Would recommend if you’re looking for off campus housing.

I would be very careful about signing documents at the charles because management isn’t the most honest there. every year they increase the rent by 4-5% (so expect that), but when i was about to sign my second year lease, i argued not to have my rent increase because i always paid on time. so i signed a new contract that kept the rate the same as my last lease. this may, the last month that i was supposed to live there, i got an email from them saying that i haven’t been paying the full amount every month. i argued with them for a while because i told them that i signed a new contract, but they still dishonored that. afterwards, they took the “outstanding balance” out of my security deposit

My son moved in over the weekend and we were both very nervous, the staff made us feel very welcomed especially with the social distancing measures.Our overall experience was very pleasant.

DO NOT LIVE HERE. I was not able to sleep because the heaters are extremely loud and old, so it produces these loud cranking noises at night. I can hear the cranking noises of the heaters above and below my floor. I complained about the heater several times because I couldn’t sleep but management didn’t do anything about it (no surprise). Management at the Charles is at best irresponsible. Do not live here. You will not be satisfied.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND LIVING AT THE CHARLES. I lived at the Charles for 2 years. The apartment is overpriced and unhygienic. The water is constantly yellow, and there were a lot of water shutoffs maybe once every 2-3 weeks for sometimes 6-8 hours, so it is very difficult if you were home (i.e. cooking, going to the bathroom, general sanitation). Take my advice. DO NOT LIVE HERE.

My experience with The Charles was fairly negative. Just in comparison to other properties around Charles Village, The Charles is very overpriced given the quality of the apartment complex. Youre better off paying for an apartment in Nine East, which is only a little more expensive, just as close to the Hopkins campus and has far more amenities (and its furnished)! The staff generally seemed to have a very flippant/negative attitude, although they were accommodating of certain lease changes, which was appreciated. The building is pretty old and maintenance issues are common. Overall, would advise against this choice given how expensive it is for the quality.

I had a great experience leasing a studio apartment in the Blackstone over the past six months. The staff is very friendly, and any/all maintenance issues were addressed promptly. The apartments themselves are spacious, and the historical details are a nice touch of style. Additionally, the large windows allow very nice natural light exposure on the south side of the building. (You can even see the inner harbor from the upper floors!) Overall, I was very satisfied with my experience here.

I moved to the Blackstone apartments almost 7 months ago and it has been great! Jodian has been very helpful since and continues to be extremely supportive. She is very approachable and is doing a great job at providing her clients with the best care. Happy to have found an apartment like this.

This apartment has too many flaws relative to its benefits. When I had only lived here for a couple days, I wrote a very positive review, but having lived here longer, there are numerous reasons for me to not want to stay here again.Cons:1) Poor enough hygiene such that mice and flies are frequent pests and nuisances:In addition to finding a mouse in my apartment three days ago, it has yet to be dealt with and the exterminator cannot deal with it for another 4 days. According to other residents, I am also not the first person to experience this. Flies are also a problem, as there can be as many as 10 resting on the windowsills. This is all despite being a hygienic person by habit.2) Disappointing service:After finding the mouse in the apartment, it took me 3 days of calling--at different times of the day--for the front office to pick up the phone and offer help. Moreover, after putting in a maintenance request for the mouse, I was left a note to check for mice holes. On average, some basic maintenance requests, such as two leaking sinks, were addressed within a business day, while other similar requests took over a week.3) Old building:There is no built-in AC, meaning summers will be dreadful, and frequent repairs for almost everything from the bathroom sink to the hallway elevator are needed.4) High cost:The monthly rent is similar to or higher than other newer nearby apartments such as Nine East 33rd and One Hundred West University Parkway.Pros:1) Convenient and safe location.2) The security guards are very friendly and helpful.

As a resident, I’d really recommend the Charles Apartments. Its proximity to the Homewood campus is really convenient. The rooms are open and well-designed. The services are prompt and the staff is very helpful and friendly!

Ive been living in my apartment for 5 years now that they are managing and I am still loving it. The staff in the office are nice and the engineers also very easy to approach if you have any problems.The location of my apartment is close to most of styff that you need, grocery stores, banks, convenient stores, hardware stores, just to name a few.

Thanks to MS. Unity Watts and Pamela Hampton form making The Blackstone Apartment Home away from home for my son this past 4 years. Your professionalism was first class. You guys are always there to speak to family and work with family through any difficult period. I greatly appreciate what you all doing for our kids that left their family thousands of miles away to get the best education the country have to offer.May God continue to guide and bless you all at The Blackstone Apts.

Worst management -- rodents run free, maintenance issues are rampant and NOT addressed! Doors dont close/fit properly, paint job is appalling, fixtures are old and break easily, kitchens are outdated and pipes are so old they leak, forcing you to constantly clean up the mess and deal with maintenance. Elevator -- has it ever worked properly? Management blames constant turnover as the reason for inconsistent service....what a joke! As if it is the tenants job to keep the management informed of the problems this place has? Rude staff dont care once you sign the lease, and if you pay rent 1 day late, perhaps because you have no heat, they issue court summonses for you on the buildings front door. No landlord or building agency in the world would risk their reputation by issuing court summonses without calling or making an effort to understand why rent is late -- except these people. Very overpriced. Location isnt worth it. Pay the same for a better apartment elsewhere, deal with walking 3 blocks. Youll sleep better. This place should be deemed uninhabitable.

JHU Students DO NOT live here. They will charge you for EVERYTHING. Go live at the Allston.

This place is terrible. Here are just a few things wrong with this place:1. The doors do not close or lock. There is so much paint coated on my bathroom door and the hinges are so rusty I cant close it. Doors that can close do not lock.2. When I moved in my room had no lights. All the other rooms I had seen in this building had lights and mine just didnt. I wasnt told about this in advance and I ended up having to buy my own lamps.3. The water takes forever to warm up and only stays warm for maybe 30 minutes. Not to mention the water pressure is essentially nonexistent.4. There is no ventilation system in the bathroom so when you shower the steam causes mold to grow on the ceiling.5. Rooms of the same floor plan are completely different. My friend and I both have the same floor plan but his kitchen is much different, I have carpet and he has hardwood, he has lights and I dont, the closets are different, the bathrooms are different, etc. If you do decide to live here, make sure you see your actual room before you move in.6. If your rent is a day late, they tape a court summons to your door without notifying you another way or checking if you are even in town.7. They charge you $75 for getting locked out. Not to make you a new key or key card, but to have the maintenance man, who lives in the building, unlock your door.8. The faucets leak and they dont get fixed. I put in a maintenance request months ago and they did check it out, but they never fixed it or followed up.These are only some of the major issues I have with this place and I could definitely come up with more. The only good thing about this place is that it is close to campus. Other places nearby like 9 East are much better quality and the rent is not much higher for the better deal youd get. Do not live here.

Ive actually had a great experience at the Charles Apartment my six months here. The apartment is spacious and has wooden floors which is a plus.Pro:So close to Hopkins campus you cross and you are on campus.Management is friendly and courteous.Maintenance staff are friendly.Location feels safe and campus patrol is within the vicinity.The location is accessible to the collegetown shuttle, free charm city bus and MTA buses.Cons:Maintenance issues come up in the apartment, maintenance staff attempt to fix it between 24 hrs most times although it takes longer sometimes.No parking garageNo swimming pool or gym but proximity to campus is priority to me.Overall, the rent is affordable (if you get a special) and the management is awesome!

There is a lot of bad reviews here about the heat, water shut off etc. the building is historic so yes at times the office might have to shut the water off for 30mins or so to fix something. They always give us notice whenever the water is being turned off. Office staff is nice, maintenance is nice even though sometimes it takes them more than 24hrsvto fix a problem. The Charles is directly across from the university, very convenient. There is a security guard at night. My experience has been good, the apartments are well kept even though the building is old.

ANY building in Charles Village is better.The staff are essentially useless. The leases are terribly structured with sketchy auto-renew clauses that kick in very early.The water has been shut off to the ENTIRE BUILDING for 7 separate days in the 8 months Ive lived here.I have been stuck in the single, ancient elevator in the building FIVE times.The hallways smell like a different kind of trash every day.There are virtually no amenities. Laundry machines are incredibly inefficient. No workout facility. No trash chute, trash must be taken down the elevator, out the back and around the corner to the dumpster.

The apartments are extremely old and when you try to contact the people who work downstairs, they are very unresponsive and do not seem to care about you. Also, they say that they provide heat but the apartment often turns it off at night and the apartment is freezing. I strongly do not recommend living here. Bad choice.

Awful experience. Try to live anywhere else. Staff is extremely unprofessional, maintenance requests go unanswered. Sketchy automatic renewal clauses are used to extort from graduating students.

The Charles provide really bad services. Workers come into our rooms without telling us, something is broken every other day, the elevator just stops working while I am inside it, and very expensive rent for such a bad apartment. No AC, ceiling leaks, no water, etc just all the problems you can imagine to make your stay very bad. The housing contracts are also very badly made, so it is very hard to move out. Basically a scam.

I hear a lot of tenants complain...cold water in showers, poor water pressure, heat not fixed...have you tried dealing with Unity Watts? Does she seem evasive? Unfortunately, I dont trust her. I wonder what WPM real estate management considers important.

The staff is super friendly and quick in responding to your maintenance requests.The ambience of the apartment makes you feel home which you look forward to to get back at the end of a long day.Last but not the least, the location of the apartment is particularly great for Homewood students as it located right across the East gate of the Homewood campus.It is a two minute walk to the St.Paul’s street which is a great place to check out, especially for food lovers.I forgot to mention about the Barnes and Nobles bus stop, which is just a minute away, from which you can get all possible bus routes that take you to the different parts of the city like JHMI campus, Fells Point, Penn station, Downtown, etc.Totally worth the price!

NOT SATISFIED WITH THE CUSTOMER SERVICEI felt horrified to see things that looked like Legal or Court notices posted at the entrance, like for students who were late with rent or something. They seemed to contain personal info, posted in the entrance *where lots of people could see.* Is someone trying to embarrass Hopkins students? What about our reputations? Would it be better to respect privacy, and put it only on the resident’s door, in an envelope, or in a mailbox? Maybe if someone doesn’t pay rent on time…is it possible it’s due to a repair issue or something? I wouldn’t be surprised b.c. this place has many repair/maintenance issues, and I hear many complaints.

There seems to be an issue with tobacco smoke/odors. Id like this place to enforce a tobacco-free policy for employees. I think other places do so and use nicotine screenings. Ive gone to the office area where a guy, I think Scott Severn was. Unfortunately, the area seemed to me to smell strongly like tobacco smoke/odors. An apartment building is home to lots of people. Id like to see the world be a better place where people are protected from potential tobacco-related harms.

This apartment needs to be heavily renovated. First, the hardwood floors in each apartment are literally coming apart (pieces of wood coming up and nails exposed). Next, the building controls heating during winter time but seems to turn on the heat at random. They say whenever its 50 or colder the heating will come on but my apartment has gone days without heating when the temperature is well below 50. Lastly, the apartment constantly lacks hot water. Each time I call maintenance they send someone to look at it but over the course of 3 months and 10+ calls it really feels like a game of luck as to whether I will get hot water in my shower each night. This is especially concerning during winter times when its both freezing outside and inside because the building refuses to turn on the heat. Please do not live here until housing has promised to address these issues.

Friendly staff, Good Management, Great location for Hopkins students. Had a good experience!

I am a tenant.Let me get the plusses out of the way -- its close to campus. And the security guards and (sometimes) the repairmen are kind and professional.Now the minuses: constant noise problems from HVAC units. Constant maintenance issues and unbelievably long repair times (it took weeks for a faucet issue to be addressed). No mailroom in the Blackstone, and a terrible, unsecure mailroom in the Charles. Tiny, inadequate kitchen. Tiny, inadequate bathroom. No easy trash disposal. The appearance of mice and flies, without rhyme or reason, all the time.You should not live here if you are a professional. You should not live here if you are a student. You should not even live here if you are desperate. The (slightly) lower cost relative to other buildings in the area could never justify the litany of issues and the misery they will incur. DO NOT RENT HERE.

Management team is so helpful and helped me the same day twice.

Ill start with the positives: the apartment is across the street from Hopkins, which is great for me, since I have to go into my research lab every 12h.Now to the negatives, which there are many:A small example of the bad quality service: I dont have a swipe card, Im using a card that was given to me by the previous occupants of our apartment, who got that same card from the previous occupant. Apart from the security issues with being able to use old cards, it makes you feel like this isnt where your home is; its a temporary place to trade off.Next up, the noise: none of the doors in my apartment were set correctly, meaning that they cannot close fully; even if they closed, it doesnt seem like it would make much difference, since the doors are all poor-quality hollow wood that transmits every bit of noise from inside the apartment from other roommates. This does not even address the fact that two of the so-called three bedrooms in the 1BR with Den Apartment are made of paneled glass, which has no noise reduction at all, so anyone in any of the rooms can hear every last thing happening in the living room and beyond. In addition to that, almost every single of the ~8 windows we have in our apartment were set badly, allowing all the traffic noise from Charles street to accompany us at all times of the day (and night).Now, the maintenance: We had an emergency plumbing situation at 2am when we discovered a pipe broken and leaking water into the wall at a steady rate. We went downstairs and a security guard gave us a number for the emergency plumbing service. Turns out, the company no longer serviced the building, and the security guard, and Hopkins security (which we called to check if they somehow might have an updated number) were not told that the service number had changed. We called the regular maintenance number, which told us to leave a message if its an emergency service. It took over 45 mins between finding the leak and having a single response. It was an hour before anyone came in to fix it, and the work lasted until 6am (which I know is no fault of theirs). The only saving grace in the entire building staff (management included), is one maintenance guy, Keith, who takes pride in his work, wont try to fluff you up on anything, and does what he says he will do.On the topic of building services, we got to spend the first four weeks of the winter, where wind chill for two days brought the temperature outside to single digits F, -8 deg C, in a blistering cold in our apartment (probably 40-45F, 5-7C). Since the windows werent set properly, we had to insulate them with comforters, and on top of that, the heat wasnt working in our apartment, for a brutal double whammy that wasnt taken care of despite noting the problem with maintenance multiple times. It was fixed only after they brought a contractor in to flush their heating pipes. The short-term solution by the building management was to give us electric heaters (thereby transferring the heating costs included in the rent to our electric bill), which didnt even work because the apartment only has four circuits for ~14 outlet pairs, which overloaded all the circuits, multiple times.The Blackstone & Charles are now desperate to get new rentees, with 9 E 33rd being built right behind it, meaning they have put up deals, such as 2 months free rent, has offered to let us lock in our low rental price of $1926/mo for a 1BR with Den where we have three people for another year, and others. There is no deal they could give to get me to live in that place for another miserable year.If you insist on living here, live alone, and live on a high floor away from the traffic noise (although you will have to deal with the single, slow elevator they have) and the noise problems wont be much of an issue. You might luck out on having an apartment thats correctly set up. Bring your own space heater. However, if you like the location, and you like the size, try out Wyman Towers: cheaper, bigger, and almost as close.

It is a great, convenient location. The staff is very helpful.