#hess triangle

A Tiny Piece of NYC History

By Linda Tancs

Outside a cigar shop in Greenwich Village at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street is a small marker symbolizing a big dispute in the history of New York City. That’s where you’ll find a triangular mosaic set in the pavement in the 1920s, a memento of one family’s defiance of an order allowing for the seizing of property in the area in the early 1900s to widen the…

Source: http://twitter.com/6sqft/status/1090768624724267013

Hess Triangle is #NYC’s smallest piece of private land... learn the story behind it https://t.co/jKCJg54iAP pic.twitter.com/Wbl55kK8wO

*Checks bank balance*

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The Hess Triangle - New York City’s Smallest Piece of Privately-Owned Property

In 1910, New York City condemned and demolished nearly 300 buildings to allow the widening of streets and construction of new subway lines. David Hess battled City Hall for years to save his five-story apartment building, The Voorhis, but ultimately lost his battle, retaining only a 500 square inch parcel of land. 

New York City attempted to persuade him to donate the land for use as public sidewalk, but Hess refused. In 1922, Hess had the triangle covered in mosaic tiles, displaying the statement “Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated for Public Purposes.”

The triangle was bought by Village Cigars for $1,000 in 1938, and is still property of the cigar shop on the corner of Christopher and 7th Avenue, despite being walked upon by pedestrians everyday, most of whom are not aware that they are technically trespassing…