NEWSLETTER NUMBER FOUR

NOVEMBER 2004

PROJECT NEWS

Adolf Cluss (1825-1905) From Germany to America: Shaping a Capital City Worthy of a Republic

--an exhibition to enhance public understanding of the architect’s work in Washington during the Gilded Age by interpreting the impact of Cluss’s revolutionary roots and his social vision on the city’s architecture and life.

To join our mailing list and be kept informed about the progress of planning for the exhibition, please send your name, address, and email address to cluss@washington.goethe.org.

MAJOR FUNDING ANNOUNCED FROM THE GERMAN PROGRAM ON TRANSATLANTIC ENCOUNTERS

The Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, with funds from the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor (BMWA), has provided major support to the Historical Society of Washington, DC in support of the Adolf Cluss Project. The grant will support a bilingual online exhibition, a CD Project to evoke Cluss's life and work in both Germany and the US, and many public programs on both sides of the Atlantic, including visits in October 2005 by the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra-Heilbronn to Baltimore and Washington, DC.

31ST ANNUAL WASHINGTON, DC HISTORICAL STUDIES CONFERENCE

To be held November 5-6, 2004 at the City Museum, part of the annual DC Historical Studies Conference will feature a presentation by Joseph L. Browne, Project Director of "Team Cluss" entitled: "On the Trail of Adolf Cluss: From Washington to Heilbronn and Beyond" during Session 5, Living in the Past: 19th-Century Biography, from 4 to 5:30 pm on Friday, November 5. More information at: www.citymuseumdc.org

NEWS OF THE EXHIBITION: CHARLES SUMNER SCHOOL MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES OFFERS SPACE FOR THE EXHIBITION IN WASHINGTON, FALL-WINTER 2005/06

Three spacious exhibit spaces at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives have been made available to Team Cluss for the Adolf Cluss Exhibition, October 2005 - February 2006. The Cluss Consortium is delighted that the exhibition can take place in such an appropriate setting—a beautifully restored Adolf Cluss Building. The offer of space came in response to the recent decision by the City Museum to close down its exhibition spaces temporarily due to the City Museum's current financial problems.

FEATURED BUILDINGS:
ST. STEPHEN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH

St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Church, 1868-1961
by Joseph L. Browne, Project Director, Adolf Cluss Exhibition Project

Adolf Cluss and Josef Kammerhueber designed St. Stephen's Church in 1866 in a Byzantine style. Located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 23rd Street, the building survived until replaced by the present church in 1961. Because of the parish's limited resources, the top third of the tower was never completed. An eyewitness described the church at the time of its completion in 1868: "It contains a large basement entirely above ground, fitted up as a chapel and for Sunday school purposes. The sanctuary is semi-circular…tastefully frescoed. The ceiling [is] filled with open carved work." A newspaper praised the building, noting that its architect "is well known among the citizens for his science."

FEATURED BUILDINGS CONT'D:
ST. STEPHEN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH

Calvary Baptist Church, built 1865-66
777 8th Street NW (at H Street)
by Cynthia R. Field, Director, Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation, Smithsonian Institution

It was not the congregation but a congregant, Amos Kendall, who was responsible for Calvary Baptist Church. Kendall owned the land and paid for the building. The architect chosen for its design and construction was Adolf Cluss, then just establishing his architectural practice. Receiving this commission would have been sufficient for the young entrepreneur to leave his sinecure at the Navy Yard to devote himself full time to his architectural practice, as Kendall's original investment was around $75,000 to $90,000.

It was a large church for its day, 75 feet by 90 feet deep with a tower of 140 feet high. Emphasizing the vertical massing, the delicate spire, roof cresting and pinnacles carried the eye upward on the exterior. The building rose to a considerable height as a result of its internal arrangement. On the ground level was a large lecture room located directly under the sanctuary and two smaller classrooms. Above this level sat the main auditorium seating 800 persons. The entire building is now, and probably was originally, of pressed brick with cast iron window frames and brownstone detail.

For this prominent building, Cluss chose an asymmetrical massing weighed toward the corner with an aspiring tower. The tower, both engaged within the footprint of the church and articulated as a blocky element freestanding on three sides, rose to a spire of pierced ironwork. The open work iron spire was a feature that recalled in updated materials the famous open work spire of Freiburg Cathedral. Freiburg im Breisgau was one of a number of cities that Cluss seems to have known. In a statement attached to the court case involving the failure of the Freedman's Bank of 1874, Cluss showed his familiarity with Strasbourg, nearest city to Freiburg on its south, with his vivid description of the Cathedral. He could hardly have failed to travel also to the lovely medieval town of Freiburg to see its famous church with its renowned west tower surmounted by a lacy spire of stone.

Calvary's famous tower, which fell victim to a major storm in 1914, is being reconstructed this year. The neighborhood looks forward to this exciting development.

Planning for the exhibition, slated to open in Washington and Heilbronn, Germany, Cluss's birthplace, in 2005, is a cooperative effort among many institutions in Washington and Heilbronn, Germany.

Members of "Team Cluss" include Project Director Joseph L. Browne and Exhibition Coordinator Harriet Lesser plus Jill Connors-Joyner (City Museum), Christof Mauch (German Historical Institute), William Gilcher (Goethe-Institut Washington), Tanya Beauchamp (Independent Scholar), Cynthia Field and Sabina Dugan (Smithsonian Institution's Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation), Judy Capurso (Sumner School Museum and Archives), and Peter Wanner (Stadtarchiv Heilbronn).

Exhibition Contact:
Harriet Lesser, Exhibition Coordinator
c/o Charles Sumner School Museum & Archives
1201 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036-3009
harriet.lesser@comcast.net

About the exhibitions in Germany and the USA:
www.adolf-cluss.org

About Adolf Cluss:
www.goethe.de/cluss

Cluss Electronic Newsletters

This project is made possible thanks to generous support from the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, with funds from the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor (BMWA), the MARPAT Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. A cooperative project of the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, Goethe-Institut Washington, the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the National Building Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Architectural History and Historic Preservation and the Stadtarchiv Heilbronn.