The Barton — Local services in Clayton

Avoid at all costs. I lived at the Barton for over a year, and I can honestly say it was the worst apartment experience I have had to date. If you are looking for an upscale apartment in the Clayton area, or even just a safer place to live in STL, please consider the other downtown Clayton apartments or the smaller properties in the Moorlands.

The Barton is nice on paper: it's in a safe, great location, and rent seems lower than other Clayton apartments (more on that later). But the Barton is so poorly managers, and such a miserable place to live, that it is impossible to justify choosing this as your next home. Here's a list of just some of the many problems:

• It’s filthy inside. Stairwells, hallways, and “amenities” reek. I can only describe the smell as reminiscent of a nursing home. Just in the past year, the carpets have become dingy and stained. There are a lot of dogs in this building, so it gets dirty fast. You’d think carpets would be cleaned regularly, but they accumulate hair and piss, so the building constantly reeks. Even visitors remarked that the building seemed to be going downhill.

• As other reviews mention, you need a lightbulb replaced in the fixtures in your unit? Ones that you didn’t even install yourself? Expect to pay $60 per bulb. This is ridiculous, and if you dare to challenge it, management will harass you. They look for any chance to nickel-and-dime you, so beware.

• The walls and floors are paper thin. You will hear everything—and I mean everything—that your neighbors do. I could hear my next door neighbor sneeze as if he was in the room with me. I heard full conversations from below and above.

• The units themselves are shoddy. The sink and shower have almost no water pressure, and hot water runs out fast. My kitchen sink’s water flow was so poor that it could not even rinse a dish. But of course, the blame was placed on me, the resident, for this. Despite numerous maintenance requests, nothing was ever fixed. My unit was also particularly filthy when I moved in, though they did nothing to fix this too. Noticing a pattern?

• There are lots of hidden fees when you sign the lease. With what utilities and other hidden costs exist (like the trash fee, for garbage you have to drag yourself down to the often-broken trash compactor in the first floor garage), expect to pay roughly $200-300 more for your lease per month. And that’s not including the garage fee, which is $100 per month.

• The units themselves are somewhat depressing. They look nice when empty, but the gray paint, appliances, cabinets, and dark lighting inside make these units very dark. The same goes for the hallways, which have zero natural sunlight. It’s a small thing, but it makes it feels as if you’re living in a tomb.

• The amenities are incredibly poor for what you’re paying to live here. I’m not sure where the maintenance fees go, but it’s not to improvement. The pool is tiny, the grills do not work (and are also, for some reason, located next to a public sidewalk on the side of the building?), and the gym is tiny.

Most importantly, the management here is reprehensible. The team that took over in December 2024 is the most unkind, unprofessional, and unhelpful bunch you’ll ever meet. They are akin to slumlords. When the management team does bother to come into work—and note that they’re not there after 5, so if you actually have an adult job, you’ll never see them—they sit and gossip about residents. They’ll threaten you with legal action if you dare to complain, and they will make living in this building a living hell. Ignore any message you see about them offering to find a solution: they won’t do so, and they seem to have no goal other than to drive this complex into the ground.

The two stars are for the maintenance crew, who are some of the nicest people you could meet. They work really hard despite how poorly they are treated to make this a better place to live. Still, though, please avoid at all costs. There are so many better places in St. Louis, and these people don’t...

The Barton: A Cautionary Tale in Three Acts non Fiction. (Tragedy, Farce, and Horror)

Welcome, dear reader, to a tale so twisted, so ghastly, it should be etched into a crumbling Broadway marquee with flickering bulbs and cobwebs “The Barton: Slumlords in the Suburbs!”

Act I: The Great Disrepair Ah, the illusion of luxury! Stainless steel appliances that sparkle… until they break. And then break again. And again. One might assume replacements would arrive but oh no! The Barton merely resurrects these zombie machines, dooming residents to endless cycles of half-hearted “repairs” by a maintenance worker who smells like Snoop Dogg’s tour bus and works like he’s underwater.

Grills? Broken or vanished. Garage doors? Either stuck or hemorrhaging water like a wounded sea beast. And the gym? A comically tragic display of broken cables and outdated machinery. Imagine working out on a treadmill powered by pure disappointment.

Act II: The Curse of Cleanliness (or Lack Thereof) The grounds my stars filthy. Layers of grime blanket the walkways. Dog waste, both fecal and vomitous, sits like ominous landmines of neglect. Some say it’s been there so long it has its own ZIP code.

Enter the mailroom , a chaotic vortex where packages vanish, and residents spend 30 minutes or more in a sweaty treasure hunt, praying for a miracle.

Act III: The Villainous Management & Their Henchmen Speak up, complain, or dare to ask why your lightbulb costs $60 and you’ll find yourself in the Barton’s version of The Hunger Games. Residents are bullied, threatened, and yes, even evicted for voicing concerns. Management employs an aggressive law firm because customer service is for the weak.

One elderly woman, a retired sweetheart who merely wanted clean walkways and functioning amenities, was refused lease renewal for speaking up. The stress drove her to a stroke. And when she returned to the dog park to visit friends? Management threatened her with police removal and arrest. Can you imagine? A woman recovering from a medical crisis, treated like a criminal for missing her former community. Heavens! And if you think your safety matters here — think again. A broken garage exit door, heavy and unusable, threatens all, especially the disabled. And the pièce de résistance? Rat poison in the dog park, with two dogs hospitalized. Nefarious doesn’t even begin to cover it.

No cameras. No accountability. No shame.

Finale: The Rotten Core The Barton has become a farcical masquerade of former grandeur. A place where retaliatory behavior, extortionate fees ($60 lightbulbs, anyone?), and outright neglect rule the day. The staff is lazy. Deliveries spoil. Tenants are bullied into silence or pushed out entirely.

Clayton officials — please, for the love of decency — INVESTIGATE THIS PLACE.

The Barton is not just poorly managed — it is actively hostile to its residents. Women do not feel safe. Elderly residents are intimidated. Pets are poisoned. And all the while, management cackles behind lease clauses and attorney emails like cartoon villains in a bad soap opera.

What once was a sparkling gem has become a cracked, cursed mirror — reflecting only the greed, apathy, and rot of those in charge.

Final Rating: -10 out of 5 stars Unless you’re into being extorted, harassed, and traumatized, RUN — don’t walk — from The Barton.

(And for heaven’s sake, bring your own...

So far our apartment was filthy on move in day. Hair and dust all throughout floors and baseboards, egg whites and coffee stains on counters, ceiling fans making a bell sound, door handles coming off of bedroom doors, used q-tips in bathroom drawers. Maintance is super kind and positive but not skilled in maintaining things. Management is very warm and responsive, but gone after 6 on weekdays, shorter hours on Saturday and not there on Sunday. There is no one to assist you when management is gone. There are loose pavers around pool area (everyone tripping), TVs never work (most likely an AT&T issue). Very beautiful property, new, great location, spacious apartments, but not quite maintained to quality.

UPDATE 8/13/2021 --The leasing team has been on top of getting a cleaning crew to come resolve the poorly flipped apartment. The blinds, baseboards, doors, ceiling fans were thoroughly cleaned. We really do love the feel of this place. It is disappointing that those in charge of maintaining the property are not actually able to complete projects and do so in a timely manner. Again I really cannot understand why there is no one here every day at the front desk to help resolve issues like interrupted TV service, burned out specialty bulbs, mail/package delivery, broken printers in the business nook. This is a "luxury" apartment property. Fedex has this address listed as "building closed on Saturday and Sunday". Which means, no Amazon/Walmart/Target or other 2-day/next-day deliveries. Having an individual who is able to make sure the amenities are fully available for residents from the hours of 8 am to at least 8 pm seems logical to me. I think those touring the Barton do not realize that there is NO support from dinner time on weekdays, or weekends. The leasing office staff are usually unable to provide the bulbs you need, fix the broken printer or the TVs or help the fact that the building is locked to deliveries on weekends.

10/5/2021 Amy- I just saw your response today. I believe that you feel you are doing your best, and most of the time it is sincere, I know this. I believe that you have made changes to the maintenance team, and you are always on top of communications. But things never really get completed or fully resolved.... The Barton was almost intolerable for most of our time there. It is really is a shame as it is such a...