<P> Sheep grazed on the Sheep Meadow from the 1860s until 1934, when they were moved to Prospect Park in Brooklyn and soon thereafter moved to a farm near Otisville, New York, in the Catskill Mountains . It was feared they would be used for food by impoverished Depression - era New Yorkers . </P> <P> Following completion, the park quickly slipped into decline . One of the main reasons for this was the lack of interest from the Tammany Hall political machine, which was the largest political force in New York at the time . Around the turn of the 20th century, the park faced several new challenges . Cars were becoming commonplace, bringing with them their burden of pollution, and people's attitudes were beginning to change . No longer were parks to be used only for walks and picnics in an idyllic environment but also for sports and similar recreation . Following the dissolution of the Central Park Commission in 1870 and Andrew Green's departure from the project, and Vaux's death in 1895, the maintenance effort gradually declined . All of this changed in 1934, when Republican Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor of New York City and unified the five park - related departments then in existence . Robert Moses was given the task of cleaning up the park . Moses, about to become one of the most powerful men in New York City, took over what was essentially a relic, a leftover from a bygone era . </P> <P> According to historian Robert Caro: </P> <P> Lawns, unseeded, were expanses of bare earth, decorated with scraggly patches of grass and weeds, that became dust holes in dry weather and mud holes in wet...The once beautiful Mall looked like a scene of a wild party the morning after . Benches lay on their backs, their legs jabbing at the sky...</P>

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