Incumbent mayor Jacob A. Westervelt was not a candidate for re-election to a second term in office. In a four-way race to succeed him, former U.S. representative Fernando Wood won the first of his three terms in office over American Party nominee James W. Barker, reformist Wilson G. Hunt, and Whig nominee John J. Herrick. Wood was the first mayor elected from Tammany Hall, opening a long period of the society's dominance of Democratic politics in the city.