Hess triangle

The Hess triangle is a triangular, 500-square-inch (3,200 cm²) plot of private land in the middle of a public sidewalk at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The plot is an isosceles triangle covered by a mosaic plaque that reads:

PROPERTY OF THE HESS ESTATE WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEDICATED FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES

The Hess Triangle is the result of a dispute between the city government and the estate of David Hess, a landlord from Philadelphia who owned the Voorhis, a five-story apartment building. In the early 1910s, the city claimed eminent domain to acquire and demolish 253 buildings in the area in order to widen Seventh Avenue and expand the IRT subway. By 1913, the Hess family had exhausted all legal options. However, according to Ross Duff Wyttock writing in the Hartford Courant in 1928, Hess's heirs identified that a small corner of Plot 55 had been excluded during the city’s seizure of the Voorhis property and subsequently filed a notice of possession. The city asked the family to donate the diminutive property to the public, but they chose to hold out and installed the present, defiant mosaic on July 27, 1922.

In 1938, the property, reported to be the smallest plot in New York City, was sold to the adjacent Village Cigars store (United Cigars at that time) for US$100 (equivalent to $2,287 in 2025). Later, Yeshiva University came to own the property, including the Hess Triangle, and in October 1995, it was sold by Yeshiva to 70 Christopher Realty Corporation. Subsequent owners have left the plaque intact. The triangle and Village Cigars shop behind it were placed on sale in 2021.