It is a monument to a small boy who died in what was then an area of country homes near New York City. One side of the monument reads: “Erected to the Memory of an Amiable Child, St. Claire Pollock, Died 15 July 1797 in the Fifth Year of His Age.”[2] The monument is composed of a granite urn on a granite pedestal inside a wrought iron fence. It is across the street from Grant's Tomb. The monument, originally erected by George Pollock, who was either the boy's father or his uncle, has been replaced twice due to deterioration. The present marker was placed on the site in 1967 to replace a marble marker installed by the city in 1897.[1]
During Morningside Heights’s Golden Age, when the nearby Claremont Inn served luminaries that included George M. Cohan, Cole Porter, Lillian Russell and Mayor Jimmy Walker, the site inspired pilgrimages and poetry. Of the many verses written about the memorial is Herman George Scheffauer’s “An Amiable Child,” which describes the grave as being “like a song of peace in iron frays.”[1] An identically named poem by Anna Markham, wife of proletarian author and critic Edwin Markham, opens with the lines that defined the monument for her contemporaries: “At Riverside, on the slow hill-slant / Two memoried graves are seen / A granite dome is over Grant / and over a child the green.”[1] The monument is also the inspiration for Irene Marcuse's novel Death of an Amiable Child.
By one late nineteenth-century account, as related by Donald Reynolds, an attempt to relocate the grave in order to clear space for General Grant's tomb, which was quickly abandoned by the city after a groundswell of public opposition, transformed the “tribute to the gentleness that underlies the apparent brutality of the great city” into “almost a national institution”.[1]
Monumental inscription carved into stone on one side of the Amiable Child Monument, reading: "Erected to the Memory of an Amiable Child, St. Claire Pollock, Died 15 July 1797 in the Fifth Year of His Age."
The monument is thought to be the only single-person private grave on city-owned land in New York City.[2]
Notes
1 2 3 4 5 Appel, Jacob M. (Fall 2009). "Mourning in Morningside: Mysteries of Manhattan Island's Amiable Child". Palo Alto Review: 38–39.
Monumental inscription carved on back side of the Amiable Child Monument, reading: "'Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not.' Job 14:1–2."Daytonian in Manhattan blog
Riverside Park is a scenic waterfront public park in the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The park measures 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 100 to 500 feet wide, running between the Hudson River and Henry Hudson Parkway to the west and the serpentine Riverside Drive to the east.
Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside Heights borders Central Harlem and Morningside Park to the east, Manhattanville to the north, the Manhattan Valley section of the Upper West Side to the south, and Riverside Park to the west. Broadway is the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, running north–south.
Grant's Tomb, officially the General Grant National Memorial, is the final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, and of his wife Julia. It is a classical domed mausoleum in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The structure is in the middle of Riverside Drive at 122nd Street, adjacent to Riverside Park. In addition to being a national memorial since 1958, Grant's Tomb is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks.
Riverside Drive is a scenic north–south thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The road runs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, generally paralleling the Hudson River and Riverside Park between 72nd Street and the vicinity of the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street. North of 96th Street, Riverside Drive is a wide divided boulevard. At several locations, a serpentine local street diverges from the main road, providing access to the residential buildings. Some of the city's most coveted addresses are located along its route.
Morningside Park is a 30-acre (12-hectare) public park in Upper Manhattan, New York City. The park is bounded by 110th Street to the south, 123rd Street to the north, Morningside Avenue to the east, and Morningside Drive to the west. A cliff made of Manhattan schist runs through the park and separates Morningside Heights, above the cliff to the west, from Harlem. The park includes other rock outcroppings; a man-made ornamental pond and waterfall; three sculptures; several athletic fields; playgrounds; and an arboretum. Morningside Park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, although the group Friends of Morningside Park helps maintain it.
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park, 125th Street, or 155th Street. The term Uptown can refer to Upper Manhattan, but is often used more generally for neighborhoods above 59th Street; in the broader definition, Uptown encompasses Upper Manhattan.
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument is a monument located at 89th Street and Riverside Drive in Riverside Park in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. It commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the American Civil War. It is an enlarged version of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, and was designed by the firm of Stoughton & Stoughton with Paul E. M. DuBoy. The monument was completed in 1902.
Morningside Drive is a roughly north–south bi-directional street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from 110th Street in the south, where it forms the continuation of Columbus Avenue, to 122nd Street-Seminary Row in the north, which Morningside Drive becomes after turning to the west and crossing over Amsterdam Avenue.
Morningside Gardens is a private housing cooperative operated by Morningside Heights Housing Corporation (MHHC) in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. It is composed of a parking garage and six apartment buildings of 21 stories each, for a total of about 980 apartments. MHHC rents space to the Children's Learning Center preschool and the Morningside Retirement and Health Service. The complex has many amenities for its cooperators including a playground, a fitness center, storage units, indoor play spaces for children and young adults, bike rooms, and a workshop including ceramics and woodworking.
Sakura Park is a public park located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, north of West 122nd Street between Riverside Drive and Claremont Avenue. Situated between Riverside Church on the south, the Manhattan School of Music on the east, Grant's Tomb and Riverside Park on the west, and International House on its northern side, it is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
The Colosseum is an apartment building located at 116th Street and Riverside Drive in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City.
Straus Park is a small landscaped park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at the intersection of Broadway, West End Avenue, and 106th Street.
Mitchel Square Park is a small urban park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is a two part, triangle-shaped park formed by the intersection of Saint Nicholas Avenue, Broadway and 167th Street.
The Hendrik Hudson, formally known as the Hendrik Hudson Residence Hotel, is a Tuscan-style apartment building located on Riverside Drive in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The first plans for a building named for Hendrik Hudson on Riverside Drive were announced in October 1897 by Eugene Kirby, a former manager of the Marie Antoinette Hotel. This was to be an 18-story hotel. These plans were never completed, however, and by 1907, an apartment building bearing the name had been constructed instead.
Claremont Avenue is a short avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It begins at 116th Street and runs north for a length of eleven blocks until it ends at Tiemann Place.
The Charles M. Schwab House was a 75-room mansion on Riverside Drive, between 73rd and 74th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed for steel magnate Charles M. Schwab. The home was considered to be the classic example of a "white elephant", as it was built on the "wrong" side of Central Park away from the more fashionable Upper East Side.
The Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter fraternity house is located at 434 Riverside Drive in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was purpose built in 1898 and continues to serve the Columbia chapter of the Fraternity of Delta Psi, a social and literary fraternity.
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