Adolf Cluss

Title

Adolf Cluss

Description

In the late 1800s, Adolf Cluss designed four buildings on the National Mall, only one of which still stands today. In 1870, he designed the Center Market. He also designed conservatories for the Department of Agriculture and the Army Medical Museum that stood on the south side of the Mall near what is now Independence Avenue. The surviving Cluss building on the Mall is the Arts and Industries Building, next to the Smithsonian Castle, which Cluss designed with partner Paul Schulze to be a National Museum and house the Smithsonian collections after the Institution outgrew the space in the Castle.

Creator

Source

Smithsonian Institution Archives. View original photograph.

Coverage

First Name

Adolf

Last Name

Cluss

Birth Date

07/14/1825

Birthplace

Heilbronn, Germany

Death Date

07/25/1905

Occupation

Biographical Text

Adolf Cluss came from a family of master builders in Heilbronn, Germany. Cluss left Heilbronn as a young man, working first as an itinerant carpenter and then as a junior draftsman on a railroad in Europe. His work on the railroad heightened his interest in workers’ rights.

He met Karl Marx in the 1840s, and joined the early Communist movement. In spring of 1848, he became an important figure in the German revolutionary movement as a co-founder and secretary of the Workers' Council. Following the failure of the movement, Cluss emigrated to America along with many other revolutionary Germans. He settled in Washington, DC, remaining in contact with Marx, Friedrich Engels, and the Communist movement until the late 1850s. In 1859, he married Rosa Schmidt of Baltimore, with whom he had three daughters.

Adolf Cluss worked in the US first as an engineer for the Navy and then in Washington as an architect. Beginning in the 1860's Cluss designed schools, museums, office buildings, private homes, and market halls. His work included schools for African Americans and women at a time when Washington institutions were segregated by race and gender.

In the 1870s, Cluss served as Chief Engineer for the City of Washington and as a member of the Board of Public Works. He contributed to the intricate process of covering over Tiber Creek. By the 1890s, Washington was full of buildings designed by Cluss, although only a few remain standing today.

Description

In the late 1800s, Adolf Cluss designed four buildings on the National Mall, only one of which still stands today. In 1870, he designed the Center Market. He also designed conservatories for the Department of Agriculture and the Army Medical Museum that stood on the south side of the Mall near what is now Independence Avenue. The surviving Cluss building on the Mall is the Arts and Industries Building, next to the Smithsonian Castle, which Cluss designed with partner Paul Schulze to be a National Museum and house the Smithsonian collections after the Institution outgrew the space in the Castle.

Creator

Adolf Cluss

Birth Date

07/14/1825

Death Date

07/25/1905

Coverage

1830-1859

Source

Smithsonian Institution Archives. View original photograph.