Village Cigars

110 7th Avenue South | also 70 Christopher Street | West Village | built 1921

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1913

    The Hess family runs out of legal options against the city's seizure of the Voorhis site

    A five-story apartment building called the Voorhis, owned by the Philadelphia landlord David Hess, stood at this corner, an earlier building on the site. In the early 1910s the city invoked eminent domain against 253 buildings here, so that Seventh Avenue could be widened and the IRT subway extended. By 1913 the Hess family had exhausted every legal remedy against the seizure.

    “…claimed eminent domain to acquire and demolish 253 buildings in the area in order to widen Seventh Avenue and expand the IRT subway…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1921

    Goldman Holding builds a small triangular cigar store on the widened avenue

    Read more

    In 1921 the Goldman Holding Corporation put up a small triangular store at the corner of Seventh Avenue South and Christopher Street. It replaced a five-story apartment house razed when the avenue was widened. The 1969 district report calls it a cigar store and notes that it also fronts on Christopher Street as No. 70.

    “It was built in 1921 for the Goldman Holding Corporation and also faces Christopher Street (No. 70).”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1922

    July 27

    The Hess family sets a defiant mosaic in the sidewalk over a 500-square-inch triangle

    Hess's heirs found that a small corner of the Voorhis plot had been left out of the city's seizure, and they filed notice that they still held it. The city asked the family to donate the scrap to the public, but they refused. On July 27, 1922 they laid a mosaic declaring the spot Hess estate property that was never dedicated to public use. The plot measures 500 square inches.

    “…installed the present, defiant mosaic on July 27, 1922…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1938

    The Hess triangle is sold to the neighboring cigar store for $100

    In 1938 the plot, reported to be the smallest in New York City, went to the adjoining Village Cigars store, which then operated as United Cigars. Yeshiva University later came to own it, and in October 1995 sold it to the 70 Christopher Realty Corporation. Later owners have left the mosaic plaque in place.

    “In 1938, the property ... was sold to the adjacent Village Cigars store (United Cigars at that time) for US$100…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2024

    Village Cigars closes after 102 years as a cigar shop on this corner

    Village Cigars shut its doors in 2024 after 102 years of selling tobacco here. The triangle and the shop behind it had been listed for sale briefly in 2021, but no sale took place. Mamali, a Georgian restaurant, took over the space and kept the shop's red-and-white signs.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 1,156 buildings with stories in West Village