The Shelby

"Super great pool party. Drinks were flowing and music was bumping. Bring back these guys for a comedy show soon. Hanging with all my neighbors and events like these make me love the Shelbs."

"We have lived at the Shelby for about 17 months now and have loved it. We are moving out of town or would stay longer. Jeanett, the property manager, is extremely responsive and friendly. Maintenance requests are dealt with extremely promptly and are well done. The neighborhood is beautiful, with plenty of big leafy trees, flowers growing along the streets, and stately brick DC-style houses. It feels like a real neighborhood with friendly people often out walking or on their front steps. The apartment has real wood floors and we have three walls of large (open-able!) windows. There are parks nearby and a great corner store, and we're within walking distance of the Capitol, Eastern Market, and the H St. corridor. I'm really glad we moved here to a building and area with actual history instead of to one of the countless flavorless hotel-like apartment complexes shooting up all over DC. Edit: I have never had a package stolen and I haven't had any problems with broken laundry machines either."

"I lived in The Shelby for 5 years and had an overall excellent experience! The location is great being in a quiet residential neighborhood and street parking is easy. The one bedroom unit I was in was well kept and maintenance was very responsive. The kitchen size is great and the bedroom is spacious as well! You really don't see your neighbors often, but people are friendly in passing. The laundry machine card reader stopped working twice while I was there, which was an inconvenience. Management is friendly and responsive as well."

"I have been living at the Shelby for just a month, but so far, so good. Appliances are new, room is freshly painted and in good shape. No bugs or infestations of any kind. Management is friendly and responsive. There are some down sides - the walls are thin, as another reviewer mentioned, and the laundry machines don't always work. But overall this building is a good deal for the location."

"Been living in a studio for the past 8 months. Everything about the Shelby should have been right. The ingredients are all there for a great experience but then you get hit by some godawful calamities that truly ruin everything. Pros: Affordable! Ok, $1350 is still pricey for a studio, and utilities aren't even included, but this being DC and timing being everything I took what I could get. The room size is fine -- maybe more on the modest end of the spectrum compared to similar apartments at this price tier. But The Shelby makes up for it with a truly fantastic kitchen! Along with a nice countertop you have all new appliances including a full size oven, a large microwave, a full-size fridge, a dishwasher (!), and a sink garbage disposal. The kitchen is large enough that you can fit a pantry or other furniture. The location is also lovely, being right in the middle of a residential neighborhood full of kids and dogs. H St is a short walk away and you are an equidistant 15 minute walk from either Union Station (Red Line) or Eastern Market (B/O/S Line). The building itself is fine, there is a parcel dropbox (but it frequently fills up and packages will just be placed alongside it), and you have a window HVAC unit that works really well. Cons: The walls are razor thin!!!!! I cannot express this enough. You will hear everyone in the hallway, you will hear your next door neighbors, and you will especially hear whoever is above you. The problem isn't readily apparent when the AC is turned on but the second you have no white noise you'll be hearing TVs, conversations, and pets. The problem was magnified when Novo (the landlords) decided to renovate the unit above mine -- it took them over 5 weeks and they would start construction at 7am (sometimes appearing as early as 6) and would not cease until 5-6pm. This disrupted my sleep, destroyed my mood, and made me despise Novo for their constant disrespect. When I confronted the workers they didn't care and passed the buck to management, forcing me to threaten legal action to get this to end. That was after I had to deal with a nightmare-fuel cockroach infestation for five months that I inherited the day I moved in from the previous tenant. I was assured they would be exterminated and it took another notice by me for Novo to actually send an exterminator. The exterminator they sent would use a few dabs of poison on the kitchen cabinets and nowhere else, not understanding how to actually do his job. So I bought the same damn poison from Amazon and did it myself, making sure to apply it liberally everywhere. Two weeks after I started my own treatments my cockroach problem was solved, no thanks to Novo. It also took Novo several months to fix its laundry machines. There were only ever two washers that would work, out of four total. It's fixed now but you should be aware of the dysfunction of this place before you consider the Shelby. And probably due to the fact that living here can get so miserable, the tenants abhor each other and happily steal everyone's packages. The one upside is the creative passive-aggressive notes victims leave up for the thieves. Edit: Every time I re-read my review for accuracy I realize I forgot a con. I forgot to mention the plumbing situation! The bathtub got clogged up from backed-up sewage (I know! How even??), the toilet can have difficulties processing your bowel movements (imagine you flush once and it doesn't stop flushing and now your bathroom is the toilet), and the sink has gotten clogged so many times because you can't fully remove the sink stopper to clear debris."