Mepkin Abbey

In 1949 the Luces donated a large part of the property, including the garden, to the Trappist Order's Gethsemani Abbey.

Twenty-nine monks of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) came from Gethsemani, Kentucky, to found the new Mepkin Abbey.

PETA cited earlier statements by Pope Benedict XVI on factory farming, in which the pontiff criticized the "industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds" as being incompatible with Biblical teachings on animals.

[3] Mepkin Abbey defended itself by citing their compliance with the animal welfare standards of the United Egg Producers.

In December 2007, Mepkin announced on its website that it would phase out the egg production operation which had been its main income, citing the controversy and its disturbance of their monastic way of life.

Charles Fraser, Mepkin, the Seat of Henry Laurens, Esq., May 1803
After the historic house of Henry Laurens was gone, this house was built in 1906 and remained until being itself replaced in the 1930s by Henry Luce.