Hess triangle, Mosaic tile installation at Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street, West Village, United States

The Hess triangle is a 500-square-inch isosceles plot of private land at Seventh Avenue South and Christopher Street, covered by a mosaic plaque set in a thin metal frame. Pale tiles carry dark capital letters reading "Property of the Hess Estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes", with a dark triangular border along the edges near the downward apex. A fracture line crosses the cracked surface.

In 1913, New York City seized many properties for street widening projects but overlooked this tiny parcel in its survey calculations. The Hess family retained ownership of this rare remaining plot through that bureaucratic gap.

The plaque's wording, "never been dedicated for public purposes," is the estate's own defiant formula, installed on July 27, 1922. The corner later passed to Village Cigars, which kept the plaque intact through 102 years of trade until the shop closed in 2024; a Georgian restaurant, Mamali, took over the space and retained the red-and-white signs.

The plaque lies flush with the sidewalk at the corner of Seventh Avenue South and Christopher Street, so look down as you cross. It sits in front of the storefront that housed Village Cigars until 2024, now occupied by the Georgian restaurant Mamali, whose red-and-white signs remain.

This tiny parcel sold for just 100 dollars in 1938, making it one of the smallest land transactions ever recorded in the city. The unusually low price reflected the extreme smallness and impractical nature of the space.