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.