In fall 2016, Collin Wolf created this digital model of Christiansbrunn as it may have looked in 1757.
Collin used a variety of source materials available elsewhere on this website--including Golkowsky's 1757 survey and the photographic record of buildings such as the Boys' House or the Gemeinhaus--to research the buildings that existed in 1757. These source materials enabled Collin to model some buildings in substantial detail; other buildings, however, about which almost no information except their dimensions survive, involved educated guesses. The model was produced with the Autodesk program Revit. Initially, Collin modeled the site itself, adding building footprints and placements afterwards. He then placed roofs, windows, and doors, creating custom blocks for many of the components. Finally, he modeled the materials of the buildings, representing each as accurately as the source material allowed. Since in most cases only general information about building materials exist (i.e., 'stone' or 'wood'), Collin had to make assumptions about physical appearances and create custom materials in the Revit program.
It is important to recognize that this model is an imaginative experiment to represent some aspects--not all aspects--of Christiansbrunn in 1757. The Monocacy Creek, which runs along the east side of the settlement, is not represented here. The crops (identified on the 1757 survey) that filled the landscape around the buildings are not represented here. The model shows that the landscape of Christiansbrunn slopes down from the west to the east: but we made no attempt to study the eighteenth-century topography or grade or to measure scientifically the twentieth-century topography or grade. The model only attempts to depict the general relation of the buildings that had been erected by 1757 to one another and to the landscape on which they were built.
We hope that this model conveys an exciting vision of the built environment of Christiansbrunn at one moment--1757--during the eighteenth century.
Looking from the east:
Looking from the east:
Looking from the northeast:
Looking from the southeast:
Looking from the south:
Looking from the southwest:
Looking from the north:
Looking from the north:
