The failed revolutions of 1848 across Europe resulted in a huge migration from the affected countries. Among those Germans who left were three friends: two philosophers and an architect. In spite of their differing backgrounds, they all agreed on the need for systemic reform and were all members of the Communist League. While the philosophers ended up in England, the architect became one of the famous forty-eighters, Germans who emigrated to the United States at this time.
While most of those continued west, settling the farming country of the country from Wisconsin down to Texas, our architect stayed on the east coast – after all, that’s where the jobs were in his business. He eventually settled in Washington D.C. and began a long and – eventually – successful career. At first, however, he worked for the federal government, in the Coastal Survey, at the Navy Yard and then at the Treasury. During this time, he attempted to branch out as a bookseller, and, after having received his father’s inheritance in 1859, a brewer. None of these worked out, and he eventually returned to the Ordnance Department at the Navy Yard, where he befriended John Dahlgren.
His next attempt to branch out was more successful. While still working at the Navy Yard, he opened his own architectural studio. Even as the Civil War raged, he was given the job of determining what to do with the sewers of the city in general and the Washington City Canal in particular. It was his work that led to the covering of the canal, and its integration into a city-wide sewer system as part of the great post-war rebuilding and modernization of Washington D.C. He also became a member of the Board of Public Works and was instrumental in passing building regulations and – most likely – the Parking Act of 1870 that declared that the property between the property line and the city-maintained sidewalk was to be cared for – turned into a park – by the owner of the property, a decision that continues to ensure that our neighborhood is green today.
His work for the city apparently did not take up all his time, as he maintained his private practice, designing hundreds of properties across the city, from individual homes to schools to large federal projects. While he eventually became a staunch Republican, the architect remained true to his political roots in several ways, not the least in his choice of building material: Bricks. He felt that these was the most egalitarian choice, and between his old history and the preferred color of the bricks, he was known as the ‘red architect.’
The architect is, of course, Adolf Cluss, designer of Eastern Market and seen above. While most of his works in D.C. have been torn down, those that remain, including the Sumner and Franklin schools, Calvary Baptist Church, the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building and, of course, our market, are a testament to his genius as an architect.
Meanwhile, his two friends who had fled to England back in 1848 had their own measure of success, publishing books on economic philosophy that continue to reverberate today, even as the attempts to build societies based on their work have failed, often spectacularly. Yes, it was really Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that had befriended Adolf Cluss way back in the 1840s.
More on their friendship – including a personal connection – next week.