Hess triangle
The Hess Triangle is a triangular mosaic tile that was set into the sidewalk at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street in the West Village of New York City . The tile bears the inscription "Property of the Hess Estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes" ( "Property of the Hess estate which has never been released for public purposes") . It is an isosceles triangle with a 25½ inch (65 cm) long base and 27½ inch (70 cm) long sides.
The tile emerged from a dispute between the city council and the property of David Hess, a Philadelphia property owner who owned the Voorhis , a five-story apartment complex. During the 1910s, the city expropriated and demolished hundreds of buildings in the area to widen Seventh Avenue and extend the route of the IRT subway . According to Ross Duff Wyttock, who wrote a report in the Hartford Courant in 1928 , Hess' heirs discovered that when the town took possession of the Voorhis, that little corner of the property was forgotten when they visited the property, which resulted in a reference to ownership attached. The city asked the family to hand over the small property to the public, but they refused and on July 27, 1922 installed the mosaic that still exists today.
In 1938, the property, which was the smallest property in New York City at the time , was sold to the adjacent Village Cigars store for $ 1,000 (adjusted for inflation in 2016, about $ 17,000), which is roughly $ 2 per square inch . The new owners left the board where it is today (as of 2016).
swell
- ↑ a b c d Betsy Kim: Tiles Underfoot Recall Owner Who Put His Foot Down . In: The Villager , NYC Community Media, August 4–10, 2011. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ↑ a b Jesse McKinley: FYI . In: The New York Times , April 16, 1995. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ↑ Hess Triangle . RoadsideAmerica.com . Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ↑ a b Jen Carlson: Hess's Old Teeny Tiny Message to City . In: Gothamist , November 1, 2010. Archived from the original on June 14, 2016 Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ↑ CPI Inflation Calculator . Retrieved June 2, 2016.
- ^ Jen Carlson: The Story Behind Hess Triangle, Once The Littlest Piece Of Land In NYC . In: Gothamist , April 9, 2015. Archived from the original on April 9, 2015 Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
Coordinates: 40 ° 44 ′ 1 ″ N , 74 ° 0 ′ 11 ″ W.