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.

[2] Cloister typically attracts an athletic crowd and its members often include a number of Olympians.

It was designed by architects R.H. Scannell and Charles Lewis Bowman NRHP 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.