Adolf Ludwig Cluss (July 14, 1825 – July 24, 1905) also known as Adolph Cluss was a German-born American immigrant who became one of the most important, influential and prolific architects in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century, responsible for the design of numerous schools and other notable public buildings in the capital. Today, several of his buildings are still standing. He was also a City Engineer and a Building Inspector for the Board of Public Works.
Red brick was Cluss' favorite building material; that, and his early communist sympathies, led some to dub him the "Red Architect", though he was a man who in later life became a confirmed Republican.
Life
He was born on July 24, 1825, in Heilbronn in the Kingdom of Württemberg in Southwest Germany. He was the fifth child of Johann Heinrich Abraham Cluss (1792–1857) and Anna Christine Neuz (1796–1827).Adolf Cluss Exhibition Project - "They called me Cluss..." - Youth in Heilbronn - http://www.adolf-cluss.org/index.php?lang=en&content=w&topSub=heilbronn&sub=2.1 His father was a master builder, and young Cluss set out as an itinerant carpenter when he left Heilbronn at age nineteen. In his travels, he met and became a friend of Karl Marx and a supporter of communist principles at a time of political and revolutionary ferment in Germany. He joined the Communist League and became a member of the Mainz Worker Council. The failure of the German revolutionary movement in 1848 led him to leave Germany when he was twenty-three, along with other Forty-Eighters who emigrated to the United States at that time. In the United States, he continued his political activity into the 1850s, maintaining an extensive correspondence with Marx and Engels and writing and publishing political articles for the German-American community.
Early life in America
Adolf Cluss immigrated to the United-States in 1848 at the age of 23. He crossed the Atlantic on board the Zürich, a small sailing ship from Le Havre, France to New York City.Adolf-Cluss.org - Family Stories - Cluss's Travels - http://www.adolf-cluss.org/index.php?sub=3.1.3&lang=en&content=h&topSub=washington He spent the first six months in New York City where he perfected his English. He looked for work in Philadelphia, Baltimore and finally settled in Washington, D.C., in the 1849. In the summer of 1849, he started working for the United States Coast Survey as a technical draftsman surveying the Maryland and Virginia coastlines. The following year, he worked at the Washington Navy Yard designing various project for the Ordnance Department. He did not like this position or his life in the city and considered going back to Europe. He considered becoming a bookseller in 1852, requesting funds from his father who did not provide the funds. In 1855, he became a US citizen<ref name="RedArchitect">Red Architect' Adolf Cluss: A Study in Sturdy - Benjamin Forgey - Washington Post - September 17, 2005</ref> and transferred to the US Treasury Department as a technical draftsman.Adolf-Cluss.org - Career and Profession - http://www.adolf-cluss.org/index.php?lang=en&content=w&topSub=washington&sub=3.3 He became an abolitionist sometime after that time.
He briefly returned to Europe in 1859 to receive his share of the inheritance this father had left him when he died in 1857 and returned to Philadelphia. He attempted to become a brewer with a friend but the business soon failed and he was back to his old position in the Ordnance Department at the Washington Navy Yard working closely with Admiral John A. Dahlgren.
Private Practice Adolf Cluss started his private practice in 1862. While America was torn apart in the Civil War and while still working at the Navy Yard, Cluss started an architectural office with another German immigrant Josef Wildrich von Kammerhueber. He continued to work full-time at the Navy Yard until the following year and part-time as an architect. His partner was working full-time from Cluss' house on 2nd Street, NW. In 1864, their breakthrough was the Wallach School. Adolf Cluss was 39 years old.
Cluss and Kammerhueber were also civil engineers as many architects at the time. In 1864, the City of Washington requested Cluss and Kammerhueber to write a report on the Washington City Canal and the sewer system. This report led to the Canal being finally covered over in 1871 which had become an open sewer on the National Mall.Adolf-Cluss.org - Engineer in Washington DC - http://www.adolf-cluss.org/index.php?lang=en&content=h&topSub=adolf&sub=1.4 The partnership ended in 1868. He became an active member of the American Institute of Architects in 1867.Noted Architect, Adolf Cluss, Dead - The Washington times - 25 July 1905 - page 4
Board of Public Works Cluss maintained his solo private practice but became a Building Inspector for the Board of Public Works in Washington, DC. The Board was the most powerful entity in the city. Cluss wrote building regulations and was a major proponent of the use of building permits and inspections. On October 18, 1872, he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as a member of the Board of Public Works and City Engineer. This came at the recommendation of Governor Cooke, Alexander "Boss" Shepherd and his predecessor Alfred B. Mullett.Change in the Board of Public Works - Evening Star October 19, 1872 - page 1
Cluss had become a member of the local Republican party by then and had led a volunteer committee of local Republicans coordinating parts of the President's inauguration after having been re-elected that same year.Adolf-Cluss.org - Inaugural Ball Building (temporary building) - http://www.adolf-cluss.org/index.php?sub=3.5.72&lang=en&content=w&topSub=washington He also volunteered in President James A. Garfield's inauguration committee in 1880.President Garfield's Committee - Evening star - November 19, 1896 - page 11
The Board had been working to improve the city by paving and grading roads, adding sewers and planting trees but there was a cost associated with this. The expenditures by the Board of Public Works led the city to be on the brink of bankruptcy. Adolf Cluss testified before a Joint Committee in May 1874. His appointment was revoked by the President on May 25, 1874.Evening Star – May 25, 1874 – Front PageTestimony of Adolf cluss – Report of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization under Joint Resolution of Senate and House of January 29, 1892 – Page 581 Congress to pass legislation on June 30, 1874, abolishing the territorial government and replacing it with the three-member Board of Commissioners.
Return to private practice In 1877, he partnered with architect Frederick Daniel with an office at 701 15th Street, NWBoyd's Directory - 1877 - page 200 but the partnership came to an end in 1878. The following year, he started working with architect Paul Schulze. The partnership came to an end in 1889 when Cluss retired from his private practice having built almost 90 buildings including at least eleven schools, as well as markets, government buildings, museums, residences and churches. Cluss' schoolhouse designs were particularly innovative and influential, though only two of his red-brick school masterpieces remain, Franklin School and Sumner School in downtown Washington. The Franklin School was completed in 1869 earning the Washington public school system a Medal for Progress.Moeller Jr., G Martin. Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Page 11 He designed four major buildings on the National Mall, including the still-standing Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building. He built six houses of worship including Calvary Baptist Church which still stands.
Two of the city's largest food markets, Center Market (1872) and Eastern Market (1873), were built to his design. The first was torn down in 1931 to be replaced by the National Archives Building. The second is still standing having survived a fire in 2007. His flagship store for Lansburgh's opened in 1882.National Park Service
Cluss was also active as a builder of mansions for the Washington elite, such as Stewart's Castle on Dupont Circle. In 1880, he was hired to create what became Washington's first luxury apartment building, Portland Flats, an ornate, six-floor, 39-unit creation on the south side of Thomas Circle. Almost all of Cluss' residential creations have been demolished—Portland Flats, for instance, was torn down in 1962 to make way for an office building.Then and Now: The Portland Flats
In 1877, he was commissioned to oversee the reconstruction of the Old Patent Office Building (today the National Portrait Gallery) in Washington, D.C.Report of the Commissioner of Patents, Department of the Interior, December 1, 1880 – Message from the President of the United States to the two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the Third Session of the Forty-sixth Congress, with the Reports of the Heads of the Departments and Sections from Accompanying Documents – Government Printing Office – 1880
American Institute of Architects involvement Adolf Cluss was an active member of the American Institute of Architects. He became a fellow of the Institute in 1876.
He also attended several conventions over the years: 21st Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – October 19 to October 21, 1887, in Chicago, IL.The Inland architect and news record v. 9-10 Feb 1887-Jan 1888 - October 1887 - page 55 22nd Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – October 17 to October 19, 1888, in Buffalo, New York, during which he presented a paper: Mortars and Concretes of Antiquity and Modern Times.The Inland architect and news record v. 11-12 Feb 1888-Jan 1889 - October 1888 - page 35 He attended the conversation with some of his daughters as reported by the transcript of the convention.The Inland architect and news record v. 11-12 Feb 1888-Jan 1889 - October 1888 - page 49 24th Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – October 22, 1890, in Washington, DC.The Inland architect and news record v. 15-16 Feb 1890-Jan 1891 - page 42 25th Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – October 28, 1891, in Boston, MAThe Inland architect and news record v. 18 Aug 1891-Jan 1892 - page 48 32nd Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – November 1, 1898, in Washington, D.C. Presented a communication on Acoustics.The Inland architect and news record. v.31-32 1898-1899 Feb-Jan. - November 1898 - page 38
He was one of the founding members of the Washington, D.C., chapter in 1887. He attended Annual Meetings of the Washington Chapter including the January 7, 1898, meeting.Evening star - January 08, 1898 - page 8
In 1889, he was elected for one year as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects.The Inland architect and news record v. 13-14 Feb 1889-Jan 1890 - Vol. XIV No. 7 December 1889The Inland architect and news record v. 13-14 Feb 1889-Jan 1890 - January 1890 - page 361
Inspector of Federal Buildings