Adolf Cluss
Adolf Cluss, 1900
Personal information
Name	Adolf Cluss
Nationality	German-born American
Birth date	July 14, 1825 (1825-07-14)
Birth place	Heilbronn Germany
Date of death	July 24, 1905 (aged 80)
Place of death	Washington D.C.
Work
Significant buildings	Arts and Industries Building Eastern Market

Adolf Cluss (July 14, 1825-July 24, 1905) was a German-born American immigrant who became one of the most important 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. German Americans ( German: Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of Ethnic German ancestry Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Heilbronn (haɪlˈbʁɔn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Events 1132 - Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily. Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Arts and Industries Building is the second oldest of the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall in Washington D The Eastern Market is a Public market in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood of Washington D Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 1132 - Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily. Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the An architect is a licensed individual who leads a design team in the Planning and Design of buildings and participates in oversight of Building Construction Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar

He was born in 1825 in Heilbronn in the Kingdom of Württemberg in south-west Germany. Year 1825 ( MDCCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Heilbronn (haɪlˈbʁɔn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany Württemberg, formerly known as Wirtemberg, is an area and a former state in Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. His father was a master builder, and young Cluss set out as an itinerant carpenter when he left Heilbrunn 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. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based He joined the Communist League and became a member of the Mainz Worker Council. The Communist League was the first Marxist international organisation Mainz (ˈmaɪ̯nʦ (Mayence is a City in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. 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. " Germany " at the time of the Revolutions of 1848 had been a collection of 39 States loosely bound together in the German Confederation. The Forty-Eighters were Europeans who participated in or supported the revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe 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. Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who

Settling in Washington, D. C. , Cluss also began building a highly successful practice as an engineer and architect. In the following decades, from the 1860s to the 1890s, he was responsible for designing scores of major public buildings, including at least eleven schools, as well as markets, government buildings, museums, residences and churches. Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA was completed in 1869 The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the " Mauve Decade" because William Henry Perkin 's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that By 1872, he had become City Engineer and a member of the Board of Public Works, overseeing some of the civic improvements that transformed Washington in the 1870s: street paving, sewer construction, and the planting of thousands of street trees. Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events and Trends Technology The invention of the prototype telephone by Alexander G

Calvary Baptist Church

Cluss's 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. He designed four major buildings on the National Mall, including the still-standing Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building. The National Mall is an open-area National park in Downtown Washington D The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of The Arts and Industries Building is the second oldest of the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall in Washington D He built six houses of worship, including Calvary Baptist Church, located at 777 8th Street, N. W.

Two of the city's major food markets, Center Market and Eastern Market, were built to his design, and the latter, completed in 1873, functioned as a market on Capitol Hill, Washington, D. The Eastern Market is a Public market in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood of Washington D Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common C until gutted by fire the morning of April 30, 2007.

Cluss was also active as a builder of mansions for the Washington elite. In 1880, he was hired to create what became Washington's first apartment building, Portland Flats, an ornate, six-floor, 39-unit creation on the south side of Thomas Circle. Year 1880 ( MDCCCLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Thomas Circle is a Traffic circle in the northwest quadrant of Washington D 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. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Red brick was Cluss' favorite building material; that, and his early communist sympathies, led some to dub as the "Red architect" a man who in later life became a confirmed Republican.

A descriptive list of Cluss's known buildings and an interactive map showing their locations can be found here. [1]

External links

• Adolf Cluss, An International Exhibition Project
• Goethe-Institut in Washington, DC: Notes on Adolf Cluss
• Washington Post: "Red Architect" Adolf Cluss