A garden house in the historical sense was always a place of contemplation and leisure or a place of social gathering. As a type of building, it is conceivable around 1900 only in combination with upper-class or bourgeois conditions. In the building group Paderborn Village - which is dedicated in the presentation exactly to these time states - therefore only a few houses come into consideration for additional equipment with a garden house. This includes, for example, the Schönhof from Rheda-Wiedenbrück, which is already equipped with the garden house from the Maygadessen estate in Höxter-Godelheim. Beyond that, only the parsonage from Allagen remains.

The Catholic pastor Josef Schafmeister (resident of the parsonage from 1887 to 1919) was to be attributed to bourgeois educational circles as an academically educated theologian. As a pastor, reading and writing, preparing sermons and masses were always part of his tasks - for this he needed peace and concentration. In this respect, the Allagen parsonage is a conceivable location for the placement of a garden house, even if this is not handed down in the individual case. For the former parsonage of the city of Dringenberg, district of Paderborn, a garden house is proven. There it stood at the rear end of the large garden on the city wall and offered a fantastic view into the wide landscape.

The garden house of Villa Sophia was once located in Warendorf and belonged to the residential house built in 1870 by the textile manufacturer Eduard Wiemann. He named the magnificent neoclassical residential house “Villa Sophia” after his wife’s first name. Despite strong public protests, it was demolished from 1972 to 1974. Only the garden house - last used as an aviary - could be taken over and saved by the open-air museum at that time.

The restoration of the small garden house in the museum is largely complete. What remains is the restoration of the colour scheme and the covering of the roof with sheet metal. The sheet metal covering in historical execution is a special challenge. The construction on the site is scheduled to take place in 2024.

The green space behind the pastorate from Allagen is planned as the location for the garden house of Villa Sophia.