Lawn-mowing camel on Sheep's Meadow - c. 1880

Origins of the Zoo
Built in 1848, the Arsenal Building in Central Park actually predates it by some ten years. Having landscaped the park around the Arsenal, the city needed to find a new use for it.

In the 1860's, expeditions, both public and private, began to return with exotic animals, and no one knew where to put them. An admirer gave General Sherman a pair of Musk Oxen which he donated to the city. Along with others, they formed the basis for the Central Park Zoo - then called the Menagerie.

When the famously corrupt Tammany Hall machine took over the city, they let the park go to waste. Some of the cages didn't even have doors.

 

The Arsenal - c.1860

 

Instead of fixing them, Tammany simply paid a guard to sit outside with a shotgun and shoot any wandering animals. The animals were also made to earn their keep. This camel was harnessed to mow the lawn on Sheep Meadow.

At right is a photograph of the Arsenal from 1860 just as the landscaping of the park was completed around it. Notice the shrubs of bushes and trees planted along the path in the foreground.

To the left of the Arsenal is the 65th Street Tranverse, which intersects with 5th Avenue behind the building. Notice the solitary wooden house along the dirt-paved avenue.

 

 

 

Sheep Meadow c. 1900

Tavern on the Green
Now America's highest grossing restaurant, it was once a sheepfold, or barn, for the sheep that grazed on the meadow. When the Great Depression hit, the sheep were removed to the Bronx Zoo for their own safety - lest they be eaten by the homeless. The Meadow became the site of a haggard collection of shacks called "Hooverville" - named after the president everyone blamed for the Great Depression.