BW Envy Hotel Is Creepy & Scary
Caution! There is no place to park or unload your car when you check in to this small hotel. The BW Envy Hotel should be a boutique hotel, as it is the former Junker Hotel. The Junker Hotel was built in 1904 after the original structure was destroyed in the The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, which raged for 2 days and eventually consumed 1,500 buildings over 140 acres in central downtown Baltimore. La Tran, a former South Vietnamese soldier, and his family hotel organization claims to have invested $8 million into this 49-room hotel. Unfortunately, this is not a boutique hotel but instead a very creepy and scary hotel. After parking in the closest pay parking garage -- a subterranean structure across the street from the Sheraton Hotel -- you will have to walk about a block to the hotel. Beware! I especially do not recommend this at night as the neighborhood is in transition. And, do not look down the alley next to the Burger King, which is next to the hotel or you will see rats scurrying about in the piles of garbage! The hotel lobby gives a bad first impression and the "sour" but functional front desk clerk complimented the mood. Indeed, the renovation work on the hotel shows very poor workmanship. Our 6th floor 2DBL bed room was small with mushy mattresses, a ripped sheet, creepy decor, two oddly placed windows with nothing to look out at, although fortunately everything in the room worked. However, the air conditioning is very noisy. On leaving I looked up at the hotel's beautiful exterior facade and I think I saw that the telamon columns had tears in their eyes!