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When Henry Siegel, a New York store owner, got news in 1898 that Macy’s was going to build a gigantic new flagship store on Herald Square, he bought the corner lot for $375,000 to screw over his competitors. The Herald Square Macy’s still has a notch cut out of its corner; see the picture at right. The Macy’s store on Queens Boulevard is in the shape of a perfect circle, except for the little bit cut out of one side where the proverbial old lady (this time named Mary Sendek) refused to sell a 7×15-foot back corner of her lot for $200,000 because she wanted her dog to have a place to play. (Here’s a satellite view of the building. The notch is clearly visible at the northwest corner, facing 55th Aveue.)
But anyway, the Spite House. The story, as told by Alpern and Durst, is that around 1882, Patrick McQuade wanted to build some houses on 82nd Street at Lexington Avenue. The adjoining parcel of land, around the corner on Lexington, was owned by Joseph Richardson, shown at left. If McQuade could acquire this parcel, he would be able to extend his building all the way to Lexington Avenue, and put windows on that side of the building. No problem: the parcel was a strip of land 102 feet long and five feet wide along Lexington, useless for any other purpose. Surely Richardson would sell.
McQuade offered $1,000, but Richardson demanded $5,000. Unwilling to pay, McQuade started building his houses anyway, complete with windows looking out on Richardson’s five-foot-wide strip, which was unbuildable. Or so he thought.
Richardson built a building five feet wide and 102 feet long, blocking McQuade’s Lexington Avenue windows.
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http://blog.plover.com/tech/spite-house.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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