Central Park’s Sheep Meadow served as home to a couple hundred Southdown sheep for seventy years, until 1934, when Parks Commissioner Robert Moses had the sheep transferred to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. (Their shepherd was assigned to the lion house in the Central Park Zoo.)

The rural Victorian Gothic structure which had been the sheep’s pen was transformed into Tavern on the Green, host to countless events and film shoots (and the occasional high school prom.)

Central Park

Central Park

Nowadays, the expanse of lawn is popular with picnickers, sunbathers, and bare-torsoed frisbee players.