The Hess triangle is a triangular, plot of private land surrounded by a public sidewalk at the corner of Seventh Avenue South and Christopher Street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The plot is an isosceles triangle covered by a mosaic plaque that reads:
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 . 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 briefly listed for sale in 2021. No sale took place, and Village Cigars closed in 2024, ending 102 years of use as a cigar shop. A Georgian restaurant called Mamali replaced the cigar shop but kept its distinctive red-and-white signs.
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