This area at the Abbey had grown up with weeds and trees. The Abbot decided he wanted a place where he could put his mind at rest and have some peaceful time for his prayers so he cleared it out, fenced it and has had a grand time restoring some of it. The building, made of cypress and built by the German monks who founded the Abbey more than 100 years ago, was once the art studio of Flemish-born artist Dom DeWitt, of the Order of St. Benedict, who spent many years at St. Joseph's Abbey shortly after World War II painting churches in the area. His paintings in the Abbey Refectory and the Abbey Church are still as brilliant as the day he painted them. I was told he had a secret way of mixing his paints that made them last so well.
The building was later used as a tuberculosis sanitorium when one of the monks contracted the disease and was separated from the rest of the monks in the monastery. Because of the windows, it was an ideal place for a patient who needed sunshine to heal. For a long time the building lay dormant and was used as a toolshed, a greenhouse, a junkpile etc. It is now being used as a garden shed; a garden shed with a wonderful history.