Franklin Edson

Who was Franklin Edson?

Franklin Edson was the 85th Mayor of New York from 1883 to 1884.

Edson was a grain commission merchant, first in Albany, and then in New York City. He became a business leader and the president of the New York Produce Exchange. He was an Episcopalian and a member of Saint James Church Fordham, in what is now the Bronx.

As mayor, he appointed the commission responsible for the selection and location of public lands for parks in the Bronx, which came to include Van Cortlandt, Bronx, Pelham Bay, Crotona, Claremont and St. Mary's Parks, and the Mosholu, Bronx and Pelham, and Crotona Parkways. He was present at the opening of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883.

He died at his home in Manhattan, and was buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York.