Cloister Inn

Cloister Inn

Cloister Inn is one of the undergraduate eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.

Founded in 1912, Cloister occupies a neo-Gothic building on Prospect Avenue, between Cap and Gown Club and Charter Club. Cloister closed temporarily in 1972, becoming open to all Princeton alumni, before reopening as an undergraduate club in 1977. The club is "sign-in", meaning that it selects its members from a lottery process rather than the bicker process used by several of the eating clubs.

Notable alumni include Ian Caldwell, author of the bestselling novel The Rule of Four, which was set at Princeton and includes several scenes that take place at Cloister; as well as Chris Ahrens, gold medalist in the Men's Eights event while Rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Both were members of the class of 1998. United States Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan also was a member of the Inn during her time at Princeton. She was a member of the class of 1981. [1]

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer was a graduate of Princeton's class of 1981 and a member of Cloister Inn.[2]

History

Cloister Inn was founded in 1912. The present building was constructed in 1924; it has been an eating club since 1977.

More recently, Cloister received mention in Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's 2004 bestselling novel The Rule of Four. Caldwell, a 1998 graduate of Princeton, was a member of Cloister.[3]

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External links