Bohemian Club

Membership remains restricted to men only.

• Name — Bohemian Club • Type — Private Men's Social Club IRC 501(c)7 • Purpose — Arts, politics, business • Headquarters — 624 Taylor Street, San Francisco, California

• Illustration — The Bohemian Club's City Clubhouse, from the corner of Taylor Street and Post Street The City Club is located in a six-story masonry building at the corner of Post Street and Taylor Street, two blocks west of Union Square, and on the same block as both the Olympic Club and the Marines Memorial Club. The clubhouse contains dining rooms, meeting rooms, a bar, a library, an art gallery, a theater, and guest rooms.

• Illustration — The club's mascot owl cast in masonry perched over the main entrance at 624 Taylor Street. The owl is flanked by the letters B and C and surrounded by words of the club's motto. Every year, the club hosts a two-week-long (three weekends) camp at Bohemian Grove, which is notable for its illustrious guest list and its eclectic Cremation of Care ceremony which mockingly burns an effigy of "Care" (the normal woes of life) with grand pageantry, pyrotechnics, and brilliant costumes, all done at the edge of a lake and at the base of a forty-foot "stone" owl statue (actually made of concrete). In addition to that ceremony, devised by co-founder James F. Bowman in 1881, there are also two outdoor performances (dramatic and comedic plays), often with elaborate set design and orchestral accompaniment. The more elaborate of the two is the Grove Play, or High Jinks; the more ribald is called Low Jinks. More often than not, the productions are original creations of the Associate members, but active participation of hundreds of members of all backgrounds is traditional.

Nathaniel J. Brittan co-founded the Bohemian Club of San Francisco in 1872 and by 1892 was the president of the club. He built the Nathanial Brittan Party House in San Carlos, California, in order to entertain his friends from the club and to use as a hunting lodge.

In New York City and other American metropolises in the late 1850s, groups of young, cultured journalists flourished as self-described "bohemians", until the American Civil War broke them up and sent them out as war correspondents. During the war, reporters began to assume the title "bohemian", and newspapermen in general took up the moniker. "Bohemian" became synonymous with "newspaper writer". California journalist Bret Harte first wrote as "The Bohemian" in The Golden Era in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings. Harte described San Francisco as a sort of Bohemia of the West. Mark Twain called himself and poet Charles Warren Stoddard bohemians in 1867.

The Bohemian Club was originally formed in April 1872 by and for journalists who wished to promote a fraternal connection among men who enjoyed the arts. Michael Henry de Young, proprietor of the San Francisco Chronicle, provided this description of its formation in a 1915 interview: Journalists were to be regular members; artists and musicians were to be honorary members. The group quickly relaxed its rules for membership to permit some people to join who had little artistic talent, but enjoyed the arts and had greater financial resources. Eventually, the original "bohemian" members were in the minority and the wealthy and powerful controlled the club. Club members who were established and successful, respectable family men, defined for themselves their own form of bohemianism, which included men who were bon vivants, sometime outdoorsmen, and appreciators of the arts. Club member and poet George Sterling responded to this redefinition: Despite his purist views, Sterling associated very closely with the Bohemian Club and caroused with artist and industrialist alike at the Bohemian Grove. Oscar Wilde, upon visiting the club in 1882, is reported to have said, "I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-looking Bohemians in my life."

The Bohemian Club retains its influence to this day, with numerous artists, businessmen, and executives actively participating in the Bohemian Club. Alex Jones and Jon Ronson famously infiltrated the Bohemian Grove in 2000, with Jones reporting about it to his growing number of followers. According to Jones, he witnessed a human sacrifice while at the Bohemian Club, but Ronson has since stated that the human sacrifice never happened, that it was simply a burning log/effigy, and that Jones knowingly lied to his audience. This led to a heavily armed fan of Jones to attempt to break into Bohemian Grove and kill everyone there because of his belief that they were committing human sacrifice. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas famously accepted gifts in the late 2010s from Harlan Crow that included a trip to Bohemian Grove. Edwin Feulner, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, was on the attendance list in 2023. One of the most closely tied families to the Bohemian Club is the Bechtel family. There is a famous picture of Stephen Bechtel Sr. with Henry Kissinger at the Bohemian Club in 1999. The Bechtel family owns Bechtel, a massive construction firm. It is likely due to their deep ties to Bohemian Club members, including George W. Bush and Colin Powell, that Bechtel was awarded the first major contract to rebuild Iraq. David McCormick, who was elected to the senate for Pennsylvania in 2024, is a member of the Bohemian Club, with at least 11 members of the Bohemian Club donating to his campaign. Once in office, he backed massive AI data center investment in Pennsylvania, where Bechtel will receive billions in construction contracts through this investment. Bechtel has billions of investments tied up in Venezuelan oil, and has also been floated as a potential leader for rebuilding Gaza, further tangling the Bechtel company and the United States governmental activity. Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband, is on the Bohemian Club list, as well as their nephew, Laurence Pelosi, who works for Harlan Crow. In addition, an estimated quarter of the architects of Project 2025 were a part of the Bohemian Club, including Edwin Feulner. Donald Trump has reportedly been denied access to join the Bohemian Club and has never been a member.

• Bohemian Club. Constitution, By-laws, and Rules, Officers, Committees, and Members, 1904 • Bohemian Club. Semi-centennial high jinks in the Grove, July 28, 1922. Haig Patigian, Sire. • Bohemian Club. History, officers and committees, incorporation, constitution, by-laws and rules, former officers, members, in memoriam, 1960 • Bohemian Club. History, officers and committees, incorporation, constitution, by-laws and rules, former officers, members, in memoriam, 1962 • Archival sources • Finding Aid to the Bohemian Club Collection 1872-2009 (bulk 1890-1970) at the San Francisco Public Library, Book Arts and Special Collections Center • Finding Aid to Bohemian Grove Photographs, 1890 to 1950, at San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco History Center