Santa Monica History Museum’s exhibition Broadway to Freeway: Life and Times of a Vibrant Community tells the stories of a flourishing community of color in the city’s Broadway corridor before it was erased by the development of the 10 freeway in the 1960s.
Now, we’re unveiling an augmented reality experience on Snapchat that brings these stories out of the museum’s walls and overlays history onto the neighborhood, right on your phone.
Starting today, this Broadway History Lens guides visitors on a walking tour of seven places on Broadway between 17th and 20th Streets, including the community’s malt shop, church, beauty and barber shops, and social clubs. Through the Lens, visitors can take in the sights and sounds of the historic neighborhood through photos, signage, oral histories and more, placed right where they once were.
This is the first Lens that anchors AR elements to a series of locations across Santa Monica, and it’s only possible through City-Scale technology in our AR development tool Lens Studio. Broadway History was built by Andre Elijah Immersive, a Los Angeles-based AR studio, in collaboration with the Santa Monica History Museum, 18th Street Arts Center, and Quinn Research Center.
Broadway History can be experienced on Broadway between 17th and 20th Streets in Santa Monica. To begin the walking tour, visit the Philomathean Charity Club at 1802 Broadway and scan the sign’s QR code with your phone’s camera.
Through Snap’s advanced AR technology, people can learn about their local community, right where history took place.
