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). 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. 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 and transferred to the US Treasury Department as a technical draftsman. He became an abolitionist sometime after that time. The partnership ended in 1868.
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. 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. He also volunteered in President
James A. Garfield's inauguration committee in 1880. 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. 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, NW 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. 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. 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. In 1877, he was commissioned to oversee the reconstruction of the
Old Patent Office Building (today the
National Portrait Gallery) in Washington, D.C.
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. • 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. He attended the conversation with some of his daughters as reported by the transcript of the convention. • 24nd Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – October 22, 1890, in Washington, DC. • 25th Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – October 28, 1891, in Boston, MA • 32nd Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects – November 1, 1898, in Washington, D.C. Presented a communication on Acoustics. 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. In 1889, he was elected for one year as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects.
Inspector of Federal Buildings He became an Inspector of Federal Buildings in the Office of the Supervising Architect under the
United States Department of the Treasury in 1889 after closing his private office in June of that year. He inspected the
Ellis Island buildings in February 1892 and wrote a report on July 15, 1892, a few months after the first Immigration Station opened. He testified in front of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization on how the humidity was a concern in the building only a few months after it was built. He also inspected many other buildings around the country including the Post Office designed by Alfred B. Mullet in Chicago. On September 1, 1894, a few months after the death of his wife and after the victory by the Democrats, he was asked for his resignation by
Secretary of the Treasury John G. Carlisle. He had solicited letters of support from several prominent people but was replaced by a Democrat. They lived in a row house at 413 2nd Street, NW between D Street, NW and E Street, NW •
Anita T. Cluss: She was born on September 6, 1861. She was a harpist at St. John's Church and in the Georgetown Orchestra. She died on November 25, 1917. She died around 1953. a year after her son Robert of a lengthy respiratory illness. Following the death of Robert, Carl and Rosa Schmidt, Flora and Anita moved to their sister Lillian's house. In the spring and summer of 1898, Cluss traveled to Germany, Italy and Central Europe and visited his older sister's (Caroline De Millas née Cluss) family in Heidelberg, Germany. Adolf Cluss died on July 24, 1905, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 80 years. He is buried in
Oak Hill Cemetery (Plot: Van Ness, Lot 161 East). Cluss was a
Turner. ==Interviews and publications==