25 Outrageously Expensive Social Clubs in America

If you share Groucho Marx's view that you "don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member," then you'll probably still want to join these clubs. In every major city in the country there are elite private clubs where the super rich meet to talk to other super rich people without having to suffer people who aren't super rich. The entertainments and diversions at these clubs differ. Some clubs cater to golfers, others to foodies, others to whiskey aficionados. All of them share one thing in common: You've got to have a lot of money to get through the door. Not only do many of these clubs require hefty initiation fees, but yearly dues can run into the thousands of dollars.

Of course, not just anyone with money can get in. CEOs and senators often still need a sponsor to land a spot in these joints. It may seem ridiculous to spend the cost of a car or even a home to land a membership, but read through and the allure will become apparent. Many of the most powerful people in the country belong to these clubs. With membership comes power, and with power comes the chance to make even more money. From the secluded glades outside of San Francisco to the bustling streets of Midtown Manhattan, here are 25 Outrageously Expensive Social Clubs in America.

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Location: Montana

In the heart of Big Sky Country you will find the 14,000 acre Yellowstone Club, an elite ski and golf resort that counts Bill Gates and Bill Frist as members. There are only 250 members of the Yellowstone Club, and once you hear the dues breakdown, it's easy to see why. It costs $250,000 just to join, but you can only become a member if you have a home in the vicinity (which would cost you between $5 and $35 million). Annual dues are $20,000. If that isn't enough for you, you can upgrade your membership to "worldwide" status for a mere $2 million in order to gain access to other Yellowstone properties around the world. Yes, in case you were wondering, the skiing is supposed to be pretty good.

Location: Palm Beach

While most social clubs in urban hubs have chosen (or been forced) to diversify their member rolls, many clubs near vacation destinations have not. Palm Beach Bath and Tennis Club is one of the oldest, most exclusive clubs in America and to this day it remains 100% WASP. The nearby Palm Beach Country Club has a similar policy, but that club is almost entirely Jewish in membership. It is unclear exactly how much it costs to join these clubs, as substantial charitable contributions and lobbying fellow blue bloods complicates that actual financial commitment. But, in 1995, Donald Trump opened his Mar-a-lago Club, which doesn't discriminate against anyone who can afford the $150,000 initiation fee and $7,000 in annual dues, as a competitor.

Location: St. Louis

St. Louis Algonquin Golf Club is one of the most expensive country clubs in America. Members pay an initiation fee of almost $50,000 and are then responsible for annual fees of up to $7,000. If you pay the steep price, you will hobnob with St. Louis royalty (not sure if Nelly is a member). Most of the members aren't very familiar, but you can count on partying with a bunch of Anheusers and Buschs—and probably drinking way better beer than either family has ever produced.

Location: Arizona and Utah

Expensive country clubs can be found just outside of every urban center in the country, but few of them carry a price tag anywhere near Markers. Dues can run over $35,000 a year. Why is it so expensive? Not only do you golf there, but you can live there. And "there" is pretty much anywhere. The club is based in Utah, but there are 35 Markers locations across the globe. All you have to do is hop on your private jet for a long weekend and you have an on-call golf vacation. If this endeavor were centered on something a little less boring than golf, it would be pretty amazing.

Location: Los Angeles

Luke Y. Thompson of L.A. Weekly once remarked that The Jonathan is "the only yacht club in the world where nobody owns a boat." Though the California Club is the oldest of L.A.'s social clubs, the Jonathan Club is the best known. As is the case with most of America's older, exclusive clubs, the Jonathan has a history of discrimination. For much of the club's history, it was a WASP-only club. No women or minorities were admitted until the 1980s. Though the club has gradually grown more diverse, there is little chance that it will ever cultivate financial diversity. Membership costs $30,000 after invitation by or marriage to an existing member. Once you pay that lump sum, you are still responsible for $350 a month in dues.

Location: New York

Little is known about the extremely exclusive Knickerbocker Club. Founded in 1871 because the standards of the Union Club had "fallen too low" in the eyes of a few high-powered socialites, the Knickerbocker Club has been a secretive, elite club since its inception. We know that the F.D.R. was a member, that women still aren't allowed inside, and the building is lovely. That's about it.

Location: San Francisco

The Bohemian Club is like a Boy Scout camp for CEOs and politicians. The club is subdivided into camps that try to outdo each other in terms of food and entertainment. Just like the Boy Scouts, Bohemian camps feature skits and sing-alongs. It keeps artists around to write historical pageants and play music. Yes, you read that right, "historical pageants." Every year, The Bohemian Club puts on a play at The Grove, their meeting spot. Apparently these plays involve "a king or commander adored by his men," and they are "lumbering." Though this all seems very silly, some very important people have passed through The Grove. Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Clint Eastwood are all said to have been members. Rumor has it that the Manhattan Project was planned at the Bohemian Club. It likely won't shock you to hear that members are generally Republicans and that they wear red pointy hats in some of their ceremonies. How much does it cost to be involved with something so awesome? A $30,000 initiation fee is required up front for the privilege of paying $600 monthly dues. Though volunteering at your community theatre would be much cheaper, it likely wouldn't yield as much influence.

Location: New York

Don't even think about trying to sneak into Manhattan's Core Club. You'll be treated to a fingerprint scan at the door. How do you get those fingerprints on file? It's only going to take you $50,000 up front and then $15,000 every year thereafter. Though the club was only just founded in 2005, many of its 600 members have readily recognizable names like Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein. Core Club mixes the powerful membership of the stodgy old clubs with modern flourishes. Here, modern art and new-age spa treatments like injecting stem-cells into the skin have replaced cigars and aged leather.

Location: San Francisco

Since its inception in 1895, the San Francisco Golf Club has been an extremely secretive and close-knit organization. There are only 300 members and reportedly some of them get lost trying to find the club. Even Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy was rejected from the club at a time when it really meant something to be Sun Microsystems' CEO. Due to their exclusivity and secrecy, there isn't much known about the club beyond rumors and whispers. Reports claim that the club hosted the last official duel in California. That's pretty badass.

Location: Pittsburgh

You might not expect Pittsburgh to be the home of one of the country's most exclusive clubs, but The Duquesne Club stands toe-to-toe with high-end clubs of larger cities. Members pay a $9,000 initiation fee and $4,000 in annual dues—there's no local discount. The Duquesne Club is exclusive even within its membership. Inside the Duquesne Club there is a "President's Room" that only company presidents are welcome to enter. It's the small touches that have helped the Duquesne Club land the title of "Best City Club," for over a decade in a row. The kitchen turns out upwards of 2,000 handmade macaroons a day, and the walls of the library are lined with quotes from noted Pittsburgh satirist David Gilmour.

Location: Boston

There are elite clubs and then there's the Somerset Club. When the building caught fire in 1945, firemen were asked to use the service entrance when they came to put it out. It is said that the surest way to ensure that you'll never become a member is to inquire about membership. Just because this club is exclusive doesn't mean it's terribly exciting. Don't expect too much activity here. There isn't much in the way of athletic facilities for members. Even whistling is banned. Members of the Somerset Club spend their days sitting around drinking scotch thinking about how much money they have—and not whistling.

Location: Washington, D.C.

If you want access to D.C.'s political power players, all you have to do is land a membership at the University Club. Politicians from William Howard Taft to Donald Rumsfeld have gotten their squash game on at The University Club. The club also presents the award for the NCAA's best lacrosse player, which is the perfect move for a Mid-Atlantic aristocratic organization. As with most big-league private clubs, the membership will set you back a few thousand a year after your $5,000 initiation fee. If you're a Supreme Court justice, the cost is only $588 a year, so you could always start hitting those law books if you don't have the cash on hand.

Location: Boston

Only the Somerset Club is a more exclusive destination for the Bostonian businessman than the Algonquin. The Algonquin is more grandiose than the Somerset, and the club is less concerned with family names than it is about individual bank accounts. Though, like many private clubs, the Algonquin was a WASP nest until the 1980s. It has since become one of the more diverse clubs among Boston's elite. Newspaper magnates, hoteliers, and even night club owners count themselves among the 1,000-person strong membership. Still, no matter what line of a work a member is in, you can bet they're well-heeled.

Location: San Francisco

Along with the Bohemian Club, The Pacific-Union Club is one of San Francisco's most venerable and most discriminatory institutions. It is often said that the club has a pretty simple guideline for membership, "No women. No Democrats. No reporters." If you're lucky enough to be a wife of a Union-Pacific member, you get the privilege of entering the club through the back door (and no, that's not a euphemism). If secretive misogyny is your thing, just know that you'll likely have to wait up to twenty years to be admitted. A few years back, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a gay activist group, staged a satirical protest demanding that transvestites be allowed into the Pacific-Union Club. Everyone but the members found the whole situation hilarious.

Location: Philadelphia

There are more expensive clubs in Philadelphia, but those clubs come with fancy golf courses as perks of membership. $3,000 a year at the Union League gets you access to upper crust conversation, legendary chicken pot pie, and that's about it. Though this club was forced to introduce diversity into its membership, they maintain a "patriotism" clause in their membership requirements to keep some kind of discrimination in the process. Really, what's the point of a private club if you can't find some way to discriminate?

Location: Los Angeles

From the very beginning, The California Club was known as the stuffiest of Los Angeles' elite clubs. The old saying went, "The people who run Los Angeles belong to the Jonathan Club. The people who own Los Angeles belong to the California Club." In this case, "stuffy" also means racist. The first Jewish member of the club (Harold Brown, President of California Institute of Technology) wasn't admitted until the late 1970s. Somehow, in a city that prizes youth, the stodgy California Club continues to thrive. Though they have been forced to get on the right side of history in terms of diversity, you still can't get in unless you're wearing fancy leather shoes and have enough money to afford several closets of them.

Location: San Francisco

Unlike many of the older social clubs in San Francisco, the Olympic Club has changed with the times. It was initially founded by Italians, Germans, and Irish Catholics who couldn't get in elsewhere. Their tradition of relative openness led to the acceptance of women in 1992. Its comparatively less racist and sexist membership policy has helped the club grow despite their $6,000 annual dues. Though the club's slogan is "O Realm Where Stalwart Manhood Rules," they've realized that the addition of stalwart womanhood is a key to longevity.

Location: New York

While New York locales like Soho House and Core Club have tried to update the club concept for the twenty-first century by infusing it with diversity and modern art, the Century Club has kept the "old boys" club atmosphere, but invited younger "old boys." The $5,000 price tag and the no-girls-allowed policy is similar to the older clubs in town, but the average age of a Carbon member is a mere thirty-seven. Don't let that fool you—thirty percent of Carbon's members have a net worth of over $10 million. One key difference between Carbon and older clubs is that they don't have a brick-and-mortar presence. Instead, members get together to play poker, have yacht parties, and do things college frat boys only dream of.

Location: New York

J.P. Morgan started the Metropolitan Club after a friend was not aloud to join the town's existing elite social clubs. Since the club selectively allowed some people to come through its doors in 1891, many people's friends have been denied entry. Famous members have included Richard Nixon and Salman Rushide (wonder what those two talked about). If you are invited to join, membership will cost you $5,000 annually, and you'll be expected to wear formal attire any time you swing by.

Location: Boston

What a difference 150 years makes. Boston's Union Club was founded during the Civil War. Legend has it that Norwood Penrose Hallowell founded the Union Club after fellow members of the Somerset Club jeered Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick's character in the film Glory). The club attracted left-wing luminaries of the day like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Lately, the club has taken on the very stuffy, aged reputation it once rejected. The Harvard Crimson referred to the Union Club as the "Rodney Dangerfield" of Boston's elite club scene. Despite the fading reputation, the club will still cost you a couple thousand dollars a year.

Location: New York

The Union Club is the third oldest club in the United States. A list of deceased members reads like an American History book. Dwight Eisenhower, Ulysses Grant, William Randolph Hearst, and Harold Vanderbilt were all member of the Union Club back in the day. Unlike most social clubs, the Union Club still maintains a no-girls-allowed policy, so it's basically like a really rich Little Rascals. Women weren't even allowed to work on staff until male waiters were released to go tend to the members' financial interests by fighting in World War I. You might recognize the Union Club from a cameo appearance on Boardwalk Empire. Unless you can bluff your way in like Nucky Thompson, you'll need $5,000 a year to maintain your membership.

Location: New York, L.A., Miami

There are three branches of the elite Soho House in America and double that number in Great Britain. Though the club is a relative newcomer to the scene (it was founded in 1995), it has quickly become one of America's most desired (and most infamous) social club memberships. New York's Soho House made the news as the site of a murder in 2010, but that hasn't stopped it from being a hot ticket. The L.A. location is a go-to club for powerful industry types, and the New York and Miami locations draw their fair share of creatives as well. Owner Nick Jones plans to open five more locations across the globe in the near future. Though the membership fees at the Soho House are only few thousand dollars to get you into every house, you'll likely have to have your share of cash, cache, or curves to get your foot in the door.

Location: San Francisco

San Francisco's oldest women's club suffers from the same problems as many other ladies-only Bay Area clubs: The member roll looks more like the cast of The Golden Girls than Sex in the City (and the girls from Girls would only be seen here ironically). As two-thirds of the club's members are over seventy, it's easy to see why young, powerful females aren't attracted to this place. And, while some ladies clubs have changed their admissions process over the years, potential Franciscans still have to endure a series of luncheons and teas before being granted membership. Cell phones are also banned from the premises, or as one clearly out-of-touch member put it, "no paper pads at the lunch table."

Location: L.A.

In the late 80s, historic Los Angeles clubs The Jonathan and California Club had a serious image problem thanks to their well-documented policy of not admitting non-white members. The City Club opened its doors in response to these clubs with a mission that was referred to by local journalists at the time as becoming "The U.N. of private clubs." Though the club is pretty exclusive (current membership numbers 1,200), it doesn't quite have the cache of the other elite clubs in the city (who have since followed The City Club's lead regarding diversity). This seems to be by design. The City Club offers a goofy Twitter account and craft beers rather than the secrecy and outdated racket sports of older, more venerable clubs.

Location: San Francisco

Some dot-com workers are happy to settle into the traditional ranks of San Francisco's social elite. Others look to newer social clubs like The Battery. The swank, hip club founded by social media start-up moguls Michael and Xochi Birch is positioned as an alternative to the stodgy old clubs of the past. Of course, these clubs still have $2,400 annual dues, invite-only membership, and a diversity problem, but people can wear sneakers and there is some really hip decor, which has to count for something. According to the Birches, "members should check their coats and egos at the door." But come on. Even if you serve artisanal cocktails and make your furniture out of re-purposed wood, isn't a private club still all about ego?