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