History
Hess Triangle is a tiny privately owned plot embedded in the sidewalk at Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street in Manhattan’s West Village, often called New York City’s smallest plot. It survived after the city widened Seventh Avenue in the early 1910s, taking and demolishing hundreds of buildings, including David Hess’s apartment building, but overlooking one small corner. After the Hess family lost its broader fight and refused to give up that remnant, they installed a mosaic on July 27, 1922, declaring it property of the Hess estate never dedicated for public purposes. The triangle endures as a small but vivid protest against a large civic project.
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New York, New York · United States
