John Mullaly

In 1887, he published a book with the impressive title, New Parks beyond the Harlem with Thirty Illustrations and Map; Descriptions of Scenery; Nearly 4000 Acres of Free Playground for the People; Abundant space for a Parade Ground, a Rifle Range, Base Ball, Lacrosse, Polo, Tennis and all athletic games; picnic and excursion parties and nine mile of waterfront for bathing fishing, yachting and rowing.

[3][4] At a rally in Union Square[5] on May 19, 1863, Mullaly declared the war to be “wicked, cruel and unnecessary, and carried on solely to benefit the negroes”, and advised resistance to conscription if ever the attempt should be made to enforce the law.

Over one hundred people died, including Black men beaten to death or lynched by rioters, in the worst urban unrest in the United States during the 19th century.

A biographer reports that after the Civil War Mullaly left the newspaper business and entered city government through connections with the corrupt Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall.

It will instead honor Reverend Wendell T Foster, the first Black elected in the Bronx, who as a long-standing New York City Council Member was a champion of the park and the neighborhood.