Amiable Child Monument
monument located in New York City's Riverside Park
The Amiable Child Monument is a monument located in New York City's Riverside Park. It stands west of the southbound lanes of Riverside Drive north of 122nd Street in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.
History
It is a monument to a small boy who died in a fall down the adjacent steep bluff, 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.” The monument was erected above St Claire's grave by George Pollock, who was either the boy's father or his uncle. It is across the street from Grant's Tomb.
The monument is composed of an urn on a pedestal, both of stone, enclosed by a wrought iron fence. The original monument was marble, enhanced by the additional of a marble urn a few years later, around the time that the Pollock family sold the property to Cornelia Verplanck. The monument has been replaced twice due to deterioration, first in by the city in 1897, also in marble, and then in 1967, in granite.
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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Amiable Child Monument” as monument located in New York City's Riverside Park. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as monument located in New York City's Riverside Park. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21497. Authority coordinates are 40.815, -73.963. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1797, 1897 and 1967.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Amiable Child Monument”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Amiable Child Monument primary sources, Amiable Child Monument archive and Amiable research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Amiable Child Monument”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Amiable Child Monument” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.