I lived at the Chancellor from 2004-2005 and had a corner apt. on the 4th floor. Walking the stairs was not that big of an issue if one of the elevators were out, but I can see how it would be annoying for someone on a higher floor.

I had a fairly positive experience. Some of the doormen/women were kind of weird/friendly, and Elain Rush was patient enough to show us the apartment and meet with us multiple times up until we put the money down. She also worked with us regarding a temporary roommate. The price was 925/mo. plus electric for a one bedroom, which wasn't terrible when I split it with my roommate (I took the bedroom, and she turned the living room into a bedroom for herself). We got our full security deposit at the end of our stay.

Don't plan on having a car, unless you're ok with paying for a space in a parking garage. Inviting friends over is a pain unless they take a train and can walk because all the spaces are taken all the time. There is a free space at the door that's used for loading and unloading, which you can park in, but only if it's for a short time or if you put your 4 ways on. Then there's an ally on the side of the building where you can park for a short period with your 4 ways on until the cops drive through and chase you out.

The best features are the wood floors, the deco-style black and white tiling in the bathroom, the built-in bookshelves lining the lower half of the apt., and the windows lining the top half of the apt.

Broken lightbulbs and things of that nature were changed within 24 hrs. of being reported. Except, one time we noticed two beers were missing from our refrigerator afterwords. From that point on, we never had maintenance enter our apartment without one of us being present. Annoying and disheartening.

Our heating vents were noisy and too hot. I often had the windows open in the dead of winter. And the worst experience was probably when they were doing some kind of construction in the apartment next to us. They were working on the wall on the otherside of my closet, banging away with a sledge hammer and drilling at 7 in the morning on a Saturday. Plaster and sawdust was sprinkled all over the floor and on the stuff I had in the closet. Finally on one of their early morning sledge hammer parties, they knocked a hole through the bottom of the closet wall. I ended up cleaning up the thick layer of white dust on my floor and in the closet. I didn't want to get into it with them and have management not give a crap. They eventually patched up the hole, which my roommate had to stay home to supervise given the beer theft incident.

The building itself is in a great neighborhood and a great center city location for under 1000 bucks a month, which is a good deal compared to other places in the same area. Granted, they probably don't have staff stealing your beer and knocking holes in your wall at 7 in the morning. It's a block from the Walnut/Locust subway, probably the nicest subway stop in the city. There are a lot of great little restaurants, and mom and pop shops in the area, as well as the post office and major retailors a few blocks away. It's in walking distance to City Hall and Market Street Station and Reading Terminal Market. It's in the middle of --- club central, so it's attatched to Woody's. Weekends, you get the faint thumping of techno rattling your walls, and you can tell time by the loud clanking of bottles being thrown into the dumpsters.

Overall, it's a cute apartment. Tiny kitchen and bathroom, but great old apartment in a cool old neighborhood. I had a lot of nice memories from the time I lived there. But I guess you get what you pay for when you rent out of an old building with questionable management.

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