Riverside Park’s tomb of the Amiable Child

Not far north of Grant’s Tomb, at the edge of some woods near 125th Street on Riverside Drive, lies another tomb that’s much more modest. 

It’s the tomb of the Amiable Child, a monument marking the grave of 5-year-old St. Claire Pollack. 

Little St. Claire lived on a vast estate here in the 1790s. In 1797, according to one account, the boy fell to his death from the cliffs overlooking the Hudson River. His body was recovered on the rocks below.

His family chose to bury him on the property where he lived. When the estate was sold, they asked that the monument be kept “always enclosed and sacred.”

Eventually the land was absorbed into the neighborhood known as Claremont; then it was the site of Riverside Park.

The original monument had to be replaced a few times, most recently in 1967, after falling victim to the elements. 

The back of the monument includes this from the Book of Job: “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.”

Tags: Book of Job, Claremont Manhattan, Claremont neighborhood, Grant's Tomb, Grave of the Amiable Child, graves in New York City, Riverside Park, St. Claire Pollack, Tomb of the Amiable Child