About the Club

Welcome to The Athenaeum! The Athenaeum is a private membership club that first opened its doors on the campus of the California Institute of Technology in 1930. The club has grown with the Institute but remains faithful to the vision of its founders, whose purpose was to promote social, cultural, and intellectual exchange. Today, The Athenaeum has over 4,000 members including Caltech faculty, trustees, alumni, senior administrators, researchers, undergraduates and graduate students, and the Associates of the California Institute of Technology. Membership also includes employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, and the Palomar Observatory as well as local community, academic, and civic leaders.

The Athenaeum's lovely building and grounds offer members and their guests convenient settings for formal and informal dining, meetings, casual rendezvous, or private parties. The club also has 28 guest rooms and suites that house members or their sponsored guests and visitors to the Institute.

The Athenaeum has been named a Platinum Club of America by the Club Leaders Forum. This honor puts the club among the top four percent of America's 5,000 private clubs in terms of perceived excellence. This recognition was based on the results of a survey (of over 6,000 private club managers and presidents) conducted to identify America's top private clubs. The survey examined country, golf, athletic, yacht and city clubs.

Our Mission Statement

The Athenaeum, at the California Institute of Technology, is a prestigious private club promoting social, cultural, and intellectual interaction within its membership and the community it serves. The club provides a meeting place to stimulate friendship and the exchange of ideas among lovers of science, art, engineering and literature.

Our focus is anticipating the needs of our members and their guests by offering a consistent level of discreet and attentive service in a warm and friendly environment, and we provide the highest quality facilities and products to our diverse membership.

We believe in a safe and conservation-minded work environment that promotes mutual respect, open communication and fairness. Athenaeum team members are motivated to develop and succeed through ongoing training programs. Our aim is to preserve the financial integrity of the club, increasing membership participation by offering outstanding contemporary services in a traditional setting.

Athenaeum architectural, interior & exterior photography courtesy of Peter Christiansen Valli Photography.