The Columbus Athenaeum Reviews

The owner mark worst person I have ever meet, does not have any decency to talk to clients in front of kids. Just cos we were ready to take down event and our cars were park on the loading dock he just lost it and went crazy on us and started yelling. Telling a vendor not to take any jobs here anymore just cos my car was parked on his dock. Awful person to work with and if you are a vendor beware of it cos the owner of the building does not treat people right. Very very rude person and will never take any job in future to work at this venue. We have done enough events around town and at all sorts of venue but never seen a rude person like Mark. Management staff is very nice but they even know his attitude and also complain how hard it s to work with him. Above all if you planning a ethnic wedding at this Venue than we strongly suggest not to use this venue as the owner likes to discriminate people from oversees. Please think twice before you book this venue cos of the owner and please consider the other venue around downtown cos the management staff are 100 times better then this place.

Food was alright, building was too cold for our conference

Fantastic venue to catch a show!! I drove over 12 hours to catch a show that Magic Dick was featured in. Great show! Great crowd. The promoter overhead me talking to a fellow fan, and loved that I had made the trek from MA to see the show. They have a nice spot to pick up drinks and treats. They also do weddings! The promoter has great vision for this place....I'm sure this place will be around for the count!

Saw Leonid and Friends.
Bartenders friendly, AC was cold
A great Show

The staff at the Columbus Athenaeum are experts at customer service and hospitality. We had a phenomenal wedding at an affordable price in a historic and beautiful location!

From the moment we inquired about having our wedding at the Athenaeum to the final load out at the wedding - every single detail was executed perfectly by their staff.

The food is exquisite! We have a very "foodie" family and everyone raved about our wedding food. We had a buffet style diner but the staff served my husband and I and made sure we had drinks at all times. :) We were actually able to enjoy ourselves at our wedding.

Every time I stopped in to make a payment or drop off a contract, the staff made me feel like I was their only client, when in fact they do hundreds events a year.

We did lots of research on several types of venues including DIY style, and the cost for 160 guests at the Athenaeum was one of the most affordable options. And they did most of the work!

We went to a concert here. Didn't see the entire building but what we did see was breathtakingly beautiful. I can see why so many weddings are held there. The restrooms are also extremely nice. Extremely.

Great venue for a wedding.

The building itself feels vintage and the staff did an amazing job decorating. Service was fabulous.

There are a number of different levels to the building which make it very practical to transition between the service and the reception smoothly.

One of the better venues for a weeping that I have been to.

I attended a wedding here, and it was a beautiful place to hang out.

My brother got married here. Very pricey but it was so beautiful

Awesome experience when I came to see Switchfoot perform, the flow of seating was great and the service was exceptional :)

Great place to have lunch during the week. The Pine Room Restaurant serves great quality, delicious food from 11:00am to 2:00pm, Monday thru Friday. This is the same staff who provide fare for events. Check out this hidden gem.

This is a nice, cozy restaurant with great food and excellent service. I highly recommend it!

We attended a wedding at the Antenaeum in Columbus and it was a stunning venue. Everywhere you look there are beautiful floors, gorgeous bathroom details, lovely vintage fixtures, pretty old beams.

We attended the wedding ceremony is a really neat old theatre inside the building. It was a beautiful place for a wedding ceremony! We moved to the top story of a to a two story grand room for spies and cocktails. The staff was so polite and friendly. The space was really neat!

If you are considering this venue for your event, go for it! As an out of town guest, it was a real treat to enjoy a piece of Columbus's history.

Parking is not awesome, (it's downtown, that's to be expected;) so leave enough time to find a spot!

First time seeing a concert at this funky venue. Quite enjoyed it. The layout is so good. Room for standing and dancing also plenty of seats. Roomy seats, not squishy seats. It was a great experience!

Gorgeous space. Be aware of the lack of public parking, but it isn't hard to find meters or pay lots in the vicinity.

High quality performance venue that is super intimate and classy.

Great Event for Firefighters toys for tots Great food and services

Loved loved loved The Columbus Athenaeum! We worked with Sarah and Gina and they were kind, professional, and brilliant! The food was amazing (we had the chicken bru blanc and the ratatouille {which was our vegetarian/vegan entree}) and all the vendors drop offs went smoothly. The bartenders were amazing and our guests loved the photo booth! The decorations were beautiful and tasteful and the whole night ran so smoothly!

So beautiful. Went for the auction to benefit RescuedOHIO

This was a fun wedding venue. They had three weddings the night we were there and they were very separate and you couldn't hear the music from the other weddings. Beautiful classic building.

Very pretty venue for a wedding. However very poor lighting, and is a nightmare for any video or photo vendors

Beautiful walls and architecture. Staff is very helpful. Their catalog of decorations needs to be overhauled though. Trying to rent their decorations was frustrating.

A beautiful wedding with a perfect couple! Definitely a great spot for many occasions.

Loved the Venue had more than one room for different ceremonies. Staff was friendly and food was very good

The food was great and the auditorium was decorated nicely. The building itself needs major repairs though.

Once each year for the past several years, a small group of us has gathered at The Columbus Athenaeum on the Thursday before the annual Stonewall Columbus Pride Brunch to pack the 600-or-so "gift bags" that will be given to each participant during that annual event.

Before packing the 600-or-so "brunch bags," many of the bag-packers meet in advance to share lunch together at The Pine Room, a small restaurant within The Columbus Athenaeum that is open to the public but is well-hidden except for a small "sandwich sign" that is displayed on the sidewalk during open hours. The Pine Room is located at the north end of the first-floor hallway.

If you ever are in the area on a weekday between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., I recommend eating at The Pine Room. The staff is friendly; the food is quite good and reasonably-priced.

The Columbus Athenaeum is a wonderful old building but the lighting level in most of the rooms is extremely low. I actually had to leave this year's "gift bag" packing event moments after we had started to pack the bags because I had been unable to see anything.

Outstanding place! Staff was very attentive, and absolutely on point for my niece's wedding.

Nice place restrooms are up or down the stairs not on the same level.

The pine room in the Athenaeum is a great lunch stop.

Pine room for lunch: tasty food, tons of variety and creativity in food options, reasonable prices and friendly staff that gets to know the regulars. My favorites are the chicken pot pie soup, veggie wrap, stuffed side salad, and hummus bowl.

Was here for a wedding. First time visiting and this building is gorgeous. The architecture is amazing. I was constantly looking at different parts of the building in awe. Wish I had considered this as a wedding venue for myself now.

This is probably one of my new favorite concert venues. There is stadium seating on the sides and back and a large pit area. There are two downfalls to this venue. 1 - the bathrooms are on every other level and you have to navigate the stairs to get to them. 2 - the bar is situated in between the stairs and the back of the venue. As we came up the stairs we ran into the line for drinks and had to push our way through it to get to the show.

Very nice venue. They have very good security. I was able to park 3 blocks away.

Wow absolutely the best! We attended a wedding and reception for a family member the ceremony was beautiful The appetizers with the cocktail hour really delish our main course dinners were truly amazing choices very good, they really go all the way to keep food available to be served buffet style like for us tonight, they're all out to accommodate everyone For any type of function you really might want to look into this fabulous, fantastic, and FUN facility!!!

I recently attended the House of Heroes 10th Anniversary Show, and it was off the chain! The band was incredible, and the historic downtown venue was pretty cool. My only complaint was the uncomfortable, un-padded solid wooden seats (which aren't a problem for a standing-room-only show, but are something to consider if you are attending another type of event).

Even though they lie,I've nothing bad to say about this place, I actually have nothing to say about the place except they lie for no reason.

Beautiful building, has on site lunch restaurant called the Pine Room. Good, reasonably priced food.

Nice venue. Went for The Word Alive. Definitely seemed super fancy and nice. Even the bathrooms were super fancy. I'm definitely used to metal shows being in bars with overflowing toilets. So this was nice. Would recommend for a wedding or nice play!

The mushroom soup was not as good as Campbell from a can. The strawberry salad and dressing was not good either.

Great venue for weddings and private events. We are on the preferred vendor list here so I get to see them work a lot. They do a great job

Saw a concert here last night, had a great time and enjoyed having the option to stand or sit during the show. The building is beautiful.

I like the history of the building but it could use some updates!

The service, the prices, location. The place is incredible. Please consider it for your event

Eh it's okay but not as good as Bradley's prom venue

Saw Sleep there a week or so ago. It was a real weird venue to have a concert like that in, but it was very nice. Kind of dated, but maybe that's part of the charm?

Beautiful architecture! Lots of stairs but an elevator was provided

We had our wedding reception here in 2002. An old Masonic Temple, there are rooms of any size for almost any type of event. The building has been preserved; it's history comes through in the Masonic symbols and furnishings.
We showed the video of our Las Vegas wedding in The Priory, a theater on the 3rd or 4th floor. We had hors d'oeuvres on the balcony overlooking the 1st floor Ballroom, the largest room where dinner was served.
The staff accommodated our detailed requests regarding the specific foods & recipes we wanted and allowed us to buy the wine from a local distributor, to be served to our guests. They also allowed us to choose the staffing agency to provide the servers; we chose A Sharp Staff, an excellent service run by Al & Laura Sharp. It was a great night: the best wedding ever, according to guests.
This year, we attended a show in the Large Theater (2nd or 3rd floor) and saw the band, Sleep. I was impressed by the versatility of the events that prove successful at the Columbus Athenaeum. It was a packed show, with the floor completely crowded from stage to entrance. There were a lot of people in the stadium style seating that surrounds the floor area. There were merch tables set up in a hallway, which also served to control the movement of the crowd. The bar was set up in front of the entrance to the theater.
I recommend this location to anyone for any type of event. The majority of rooms involve stairs for access but there is at least one 1st floor option. Parking is limited on the street but there's a garage nearby w/ $5 parking. The owners & staff are great. I can't say enough good things about The Columbus Athenaeum!

Beautiful and historical. A venue for any occasion.

Beautiful Venue. But Horrible service. Scam artist. Only care about getting as much money as possible.

Saw Justin Furstenfeld for his open book tour here. Was a beautiful venue and the atmosphere was amazing.