As a kid, I was far from amiable. Pretty much all I wanted to do was read, or fill writing tablets with drawings of lampposts. My parents’ constant refrain was, “Why can’t you be more congenial?” However, amiable children do exist and there’s a memorial to one just north of Grant’s Tomb on Riverside Drive.
The last resting place of the 18th President, Ulysses S. Grant, and his wife Julia on Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side has been the subject of NYC’s most infamous, and silliest, riddle over the years. The correct answer is that nobody is buried under the monument … Grant and his wife are, however, entombed here and are not six feet under. (That’s why it’s Grant’s Tomb, not Grant’s Grave.)
if you take a short walk up Riverside Drive, you will find a grave here.
It’s a small monument surrounded by an iron fence.
The story goes that St.Clair Pollock was playing on the rocks overlooking the Hudson River on the Pollock property, and fell to his death on July 15, 1797. He was just five years old. When the Pollocks later sold the property, his father (perhaps his uncle; records are unclear) made the request that St. Clair’s grave, which was on the property, would always be respected. Though this part of NYC has been through many hands since then, St. Clair’s grave has always been marked. A small stone urn is marked, “Erected to the memory of an amiable child.” St. Clair is also commemorated with the very short St. Clair Place, which runs between the Hudson River and West125th Street under the Riverside Drive Viaduct, about a half mile to the north. This monument was originally placed in 1897 and replaced in 1967.
The NYS historical marker formerly found here said:
Grave of St. Clair Pollock, killed by fall over cliff, 1797. Plot deeded by uncle, George Pollock, to Cornelia Verplanck to preserve.
A few blocks to the north, the short St. Clair Place on 12th Avenue beneath the Riverside Drive Viaduct is named for St. Clair Pollock.
See Joe Brennan’s research in Comments, in which he disputes the cause of St. Claire Pollock’s death.
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7/4/24
4 comments
Not even 70 years old and had to be replaced.I once went to see the lighthouse under the’
George Washington bridge and it had been so vandalized that I thought it was beyond
restoring,only fit for demolition.I’ve been all over the world and have never seen the level
of vandalism that you see in New York.Its as if the city enrages people and they want to
fight back.
Chris: If, as you say, “the city enrages people” then the best way to “fight back” is for citizens to wake up, focus, & then start voting again. In the last several election cycles only about 25% of NYC’s voters participated which explains aberrations like so-called Mayor Bill DiBlasio, & all those “progressive” members of the City Council. It would help if you had more Vickie Paladinos & mayoral candidates like Curtis Sliwa, so wake up &vote NYC! Now pardon me as I prepare for another complicated AZ election cycle.
His name was probably pronounced “Sinclair,” as it was common for “saint” surnames in the Britain and America of the 18th C. to slur the “saint” part. The young Pollock boy was possibly named for a relative or in-law with the family name “St. Clair.”
See https://warofyesterday.blogspot.com/2009/04/amiable-child.html for research I did in 2009.