The Abby

It appears a few people had bad experiences here but mine has been really good. Maybe only people with bad experiences make the effort to post? Most complaints are quite outdated: constructions noises (has been finished and now offers good restaurants and shopping right out your front door!); bad management (new company which does a great job); broken laundry machines (have been fixed); and unfortunate maintenance problems (it’s a historic building which comes with some problems, but they’re quite rare and fixed quickly).
I think pros are it’s one of the safest neighborhoods in DC, but you’re not too far away from everything. In one direction out your front door you have beautiful historic homes and a real suburban feel, and the other direction is Wisconsin Ave with tons of shopping, people around and a great urban feel. Also, the bike rack is great. The huge shared space is awesome, and it even has clear unobstructed views of the National Cathedral, which is quite amazing. Lovely hardwood floors and spacious apartments for a quite affordable price compared to others in the neighborhood.
Cons: Metro 15 minutes walk away, but you have 10 different buses going in every direction through DC within 5 minutes walk, with one stop being right beside the front door. People leave their unwanted mail downstairs, which can sometimes pile up. The now leasing sign is in a very windy spot and can blow over onto the building, taking away from ambiance. There is a $ 100 move in fee that you’re not told about until the last minute. Some apartments are more updated than others, which I believe is reflected in pricing. Also, some hall floors have lovely black and white tiles while others have outdated carpets.
Overall, I find it a great place to live and have enjoyed my time so far :)

I lived here for a year (2014 – 15) & did not enjoy it much. The garbage disposal broke 3 times leaving my kitchen flooded– maintenance would come to «fix» it every time & would leave my place a mess. Finally they replaced the plastic tubing with a metal one. The tiles in the kitchen didn’t match & a few were cracked when I moved in (replaced eventually making the floor tiles not match).
The shower pressure was not very good & water would switch back & forth from cold to hot randomly. There was a square hole in our wall that was covered by a white painted square metal sheet that was being held in place with tape– this would always fall & our cat would go inside the walls :(
You will hear your neighbors ALL THE TIME so prepare to hear the yelling & slamming of doors from a neighbor in the first floor.
The washer & driers are always breaking & the manager won’t do much but tell you to call the number on the machines. It broke too many times on me that I just stopped using them for the last months of my lease. It’s horrible to have clothes covered in tide after inserting coins in the machine that steals your money & doesn’t start. The management compensated me of my money back, so that was good. But there were many neighbors leaving sticky notes on machines informing other of the broken machines– sometimes leaving only 2 available for the whole building.
The radiators make loud noises & they fixed the problem during the winter briefly but it began again later.
Good things about the apt:
There’s a bike rack in the basement but it’s mostly always full.
There’s a huge grass area where you can hang during the summer & BBQ.
The Non-​renovated unit that I lived in had a big living room & a ceiling fan. The renovated unit that my neighbor had, had a smaller living room but bigger bedroom space.
The apt came with 2 AC units from previous tenants. But if yours doesn’t have any, you will have to buy your own (as my neighbors had to).

I just received a notice today (July 22, 2013) that this building has roaches. I haven’t seen one in my unit, but the notice said that they have received 5 complaints. I have also seen the roaches in the laundry room, so its a building-​wide issue.
Plus, the AC in my room doesn’t work at all, so it’s a pretty constant 80+ degrees.
This place is so disgusting and a dump– steer clear if you know what is good for you!

The place is a slum.
It is rent controlled so the management benefits by pushing out tenants as quickly as possible (they can raise the rent more substantially for a new lease than they can each year for long-​term tenants).
The property manager will try to charge you unlawful «move-​in» fees that are not included in your written agreement; she will not give you a copy of your lease; she will hang up on you if you call her. Maintenance will not show up, ever, with the occasional exception of emergencies. (They never responded to my gas leak; they did fix a leaky ceiling, though it took 4 weeks and multiple requests.)
This is a nice location but there are plenty of other apartment buildings on this street. Choose one of those.
If you already live here, you should refuse to pay any fees not included in your lease, and report the failure to address maintenance issues to DC Dept of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (
).

The Abby has got to have the worst property management imaginable. I lived here for one year and have had countless frustrations with the «resident» property manager who is now only available three days a week, and on her off hours she has told us her other job doesn’t allow her to use her phone, so we are just out of luck when that is the case.
The average time it takes a work order to be resolved, unless it is a serious emergency, has been about a month, and this is after a great deal of nagging and pestering management. The reason I am actually posting this, is because it has been twice now that all four washers in the apartment building have been broken. Management refuses to treat this like the emergency that it is, and is unable to give us a time for when they will be fixed.
My roommate contacted the resident manager about the lease, and it took her a number of weeks to get back to three emails and I believe a voicemail. When we first signed the lease, the manager took a few months to even get us our copies of the lease.
The building itself is pretty, but very old. The pipes make tons of noise during the winter, to the extent it will wake you up at any time during the night. Also, we are unable to turn on any two major appliances at once at one side of the apartment, the wiring is so old here.
In addition, it says something that the «leasing now» sign is perpetually out on Wisconsin. Tenants are always leaving this place. I would live here if you are desperate, but otherwise, management of this place is nothing short of horrible and frustrating.