Photo: A Tiny Monument to Eminent Domain Resistance in New York City
The roughly 25-inch plot has a mosaic reading, "Property of the Hess estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes."
(Photo: Nan Palmero/Creative Commons)
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The Hess Triangle is the result of an eminent domain fight that began in 1910, when New York City seized and demolished a Greenwich Village apartment building owned by the Hess family. The city had forgotten this roughly 25-inch plot on the edge of the property—until 1921, when officials demanded that the Hess estate pay back taxes on the land. The Hess family refused to give the plot to the city, and in 1922 it instead installed a sidewalk mosaic reading "Property of the Hess estate which has never been dedicated for public purposes."