The family man | German-American Community | Career | City History | Cluss-Buildings | Cluss in the context of the city

Edward F. Droop House
Members of the Droop family posed for this view of the renovated house. Edward F. Droop stands at the front entrance. Photograph courtesy of Cassandra Cossitt.


Edward F. Droop House (112)

726 and 728 Twelfth Street NW
Renovated 1883, Demolished 1918

Cluss and Schulze planned the renovation of an existing, twenty-year-old duplex for Edward F. Droop. They combined the two houses and added a new front to the combined structure. Droop had purchased the 726 Twelfth Street house in 1867, at about the time of his first marriage. He acquired 728 Twelfth Street in January 1883 and immediately hired his long-time friend Adolf Cluss to plan the expansion of his house and a new front facade. Looking back in 1925, a newspaper writer in 1925 described the renovated house \“as one of the landmarks of downtown Washington.\” Demolished in 1918, the house succumbed to the expansion of commercial activity in the downtown area that also doomed other Cluss residences, churches, and schools.

Droop had come to Washington in 1857, soon after emigrating from Osnabruck, Germany. He may have met Cluss soon after, and it was through Cluss and his wife Rosa, that Droop met Sophia Schmidt, the younger sister of Rosa Cluss. The two sisters were vocalists who performed together in Washington. Edward and Sophia married in 1867 and lived for a brief period with the Cluss family. Then they moved into the 726 half of the duplex on Twelfth Street. Droop worked at the Metzerott Music Store on Pennsylvania Avenue, which he later acquired. Sophia and Edward had two sons, Edward H. and Carl. As adults, both of them became partners in the music store business. Sophia Droop died in 1874 of tuberculosis. Droop married Anna Schloemann of Baltimore in 1878. They had three daughters. An aunt from Germany also joined the family. Droop enlarged his Twelfth Street house in 1883 to accommodate his much larger family. The Droop family sold the house in 1899.

In addition to Droop’s house, Cluss planned many renovations or additions for existing buildings that he did not originally design, notably the reconstruction after devastating fires, of the Smithsonian Institution, the Castle, (27), and the Patent Office (13). Three buildings for which Cluss designed additions included the Smithsonian Castle (27), Welcker’s Hotel (19), and the Naval Masonic Lodge (111). Cluss also planned a new first floor, exterior facade and entrance for the Corcoran Office Building (11) and redesigned three buildings at the U. S. Army’s Washington Barracks, now known as Fort McNair (26).

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