Matthews Muliner Playground

Mathews Ave. bet. Morris Park Ave. and Rhinelander Ave.

Bronx, 10462

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

This playground is named for two New Yorkers who lived here 200 years ago. David Mathews (d. 1800) served as mayor of New York from 1776 until 1783 during the British occupation of New York and throughout the Revolutionary War. The British forces took control of New York after the defeat of the Revolutionary forces in Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan in 1776 and the British-born Mathews was installed as the Loyalist mayor. Mathews was known as a thief, an embezzler, and a spendthrift.