The Caracas Athenaeum's founder, María Teresa Castillo, served as president from 1958 to 2012.

She led the Atheneum from its first headquarters, a residence which was owned by general Vicencio Pérez Soto.

The brutalist building was designed by Gustavo Legorburu, who won the National Prize of Architecture for it that same year.

It hosted two theatre auditoriums, a concert hall, a library, a gallery, a cinema, rehearsal rooms, a café, as well as numerous offices.

The building is now occupied by the Universidad Experimental Nacional de las Artes, which was created in 2008.