St James Church AR
We bring back lost buildings with AR
We collaborated with the American Battlefield Trust to make an American Civil War AR experience which lets users rebuild St James Church at its original location.
Although the real church was destroyed long ago, our augmented reality Civil War experience allows visitors to see St James’ Church in realistic 3D and more authentically explore the site of the Battle of Brandy Station.
Try it yourself by following this link – at home, in a park, or at the battlefield.
Partners
This augmented reality Civil War experience was funded by the American Battlefield Trust. Special thanks to Dan Davis for acting as historian on this project.
Creating a 3D model of the Brandy Station Church came with its challenges; with limited historical information available about the church, research was carried out into similar buildings from that period in time across the United States.
Joe Grocott, Lead 3D Artist
Creating a 3D model of the Brandy Station Church came with its challenges; with limited historical information available about the church, research was carried out into similar buildings from that period in time across the United States.”
Joe Grocott, Lead 3D Artist
Reimagining the Civil War through augmented reality
How can people engage with a building that doesn’t exist any more? How can people learn about important Civil War battles, when many of the battlefields and historic sites look vastly different than they did over 150 years ago?
The American Battlefield Trust are a non-profit, working to save America’s Battlefields. They preserve battlefield sites across America and educate the public about what happened at each location and why it matters. One such site is Brandy Station Battlefield. Fought on June 9, 1863, this is an important battle and the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the American Civil War. You can find out more about the Battle of Brandy Station.
We were approached to find a way for visitors to the battlefield to be able to see St James Church, which originally stood on the land and was the site of a major skirmish during the battle.
Today, visitors can walk a trail leading them around key locations from the battle. However, the original St James Church has long been demolished and there are few records of how it would have looked. We thoroughly recommend ‘restoring’ lost buildings via augmented reality, and were keen to create an AR church to replace the destroyed real on and to give people insight into the location of this iconic battle.
Building a model of the historic St James Church
Initially we knew relatively little about St James Church, except that it was built using red brick. The interior was carpeted, the pews were cushioned and there was a wrap around gallery, but we had no record of the materials, textures of colours.
As it was destroyed during the Civil War, our lead 3D artist Joe modelled the AR church based on one surviving sketch of St James Church. Following directions from historian Dan Davis, Joe was able to determine the materials used to build the church and how its interior was likely laid out.
To fill in our knowledge gaps, we compared our model to other contemporaneous Episcopal churches, like Christ Episcopal Church in Brandy Station, VA, where the congregation moved after St James’ was destroyed. We were able to find likely examples of the altar, Bible and crucifixes to furnish the interior of our AR church model.
Throughout development it was important to keep the model at a low polygon count but still retain a high level of detail to ensure its optimisation for mobile devices. To achieve this a texture mapping technique known as normal mapping was used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents. This adds crucial high level details to the model without using more polygons.
How can you see our Civil War AR yourself?
We loved the challenge of recreating St James Church and finding similar churches to guide our design. It gave our artists a great chance to be creative, and we’re really happy with the results. The Civil War AR experience is simple, accessible, and lets users explore the historic church both outside and inside—something that’s no longer possible at the real site.
The realistic 3D model allows users to ‘place’ the church in its original location, walk around it, and step inside. It’s the only way to truly visualise how St James Church once looked.
At Zubr, we aim to maximise the reach of our work by sharing 3D models across platforms. By uploading the model to Sketchfab and Instagram, the American Battlefield Trust has made it even more accessible—whether at home, in schools, or at the battlefield itself.
We’re proud to digitally restore this lost landmark. To see more AR heritage projects, check out Hidden Florence and Carrickfergus Castle—or get in touch if you’d like us to bring your historic site to life.
