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NEWSLETTER NUMBER ONE |
SUMMER 2003 |
PROJECT NEWSAdolf 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. Cluss promoted the
quality of urban life by designing enduring, beautiful school buildings
for Washington’s students, both African-American and white, by fostering
the development of the capital’s infrastructure and beautification as
the city’s engineer and member of the Board of Public Works, and by the
publication of innovative ideas in national media. In 1890, Cluss’s appointment
as Inspector of Public Buildings for the United States government capped
a long career as an architect for public buildings and as a public servant.
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FEATURED BUILDING
PERSONAL NOTESCluss’s wife, Rosa Schmidt, was born to a German-American family in Maryland. Cluss’s father-in-law, Jacob Schmidt, was born in Bavaria and taught at Zion’s School in Baltimore. Adolf Cluss and Rosa Schmidt were married at Zion Church in Baltimore on February 8, 1859. 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.
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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.
This project was made possible thanks to generous planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. A cooperative project of the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, 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. |
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A
revolutionary during the failed 1848 uprising, and a devoted socialist
in his early years, Adolf Cluss became, from the 1860s to 1890s, one of
the most influential architects and engineers in Washington, DC, responsible
for over 80 major public and private buildings in Washington, Baltimore,
and Alexandria, VA. During this period, the young city re-invented itself
as the capital of a united nation following the Civil War. The city was
recognized as a place for innovation, a national and international stage
for giving shape to the future. Cluss was at the forefront of the movement.
His elegant red-brick buildings—those still standing include the Sumner
and Franklin Schools, the Smithsonian’s Arts & Industries Building,
the 9th-Street Masonic Temple and Calvary Baptist Church—are among the
capital’s most beloved 19th-century structures. Buildings that have not
survived include Washington’s Center Market (below), Baltimore’s Concordia
Opera House (below right), and the first US Department of Agriculture
building on the Mall. 
