Welcome to a journey through some of the most outrageous acts of spite in history! These stories show how far people will go to make a point or get back at someone. From tiny patches of land to famous sports car rivalries, let’s dive into these fascinating tales.
In New York City, there’s a tiny triangle of sidewalk known as the Hess Triangle. Back in 1913, the city was expanding Seventh Avenue and took over many properties, including one owned by David Hess. However, a small piece of his land was left behind. Instead of letting it go, the Hess estate turned it into a symbol of defiance by leasing it to a nearby store. Today, it stands as a reminder of how people can hold onto their grudges.
The phrase “cutting off one’s nose to spite their face” comes from a story about 9th-century nuns in Scotland. When Vikings threatened their monastery, the abbess told the nuns to disfigure themselves to avoid being attacked. Unfortunately, the Vikings still destroyed the monastery. This story shows how spite can sometimes lead to self-harm.
In the art world, a color war erupted when Anish Kapoor got exclusive rights to use Vantablack, the darkest material ever made. In response, artist Stuart Semple created the “pinkest pink” and made sure Kapoor couldn’t use it. The rivalry continued with Semple developing Black 3.0, a super dark paint. Eventually, MIT engineers created an even darker material, showing how competition can drive innovation.
In Germany, the town of Herzogenaurach is home to two major sports brands: Adidas and Puma. This rivalry began with brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, who started a successful shoe company together. After a falling out, they split the company, with Adolf creating Adidas and Rudolf founding Puma. Their feud led to a legendary sneaker rivalry that continues today.
Thomas Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker founded Dove’s Press, but their partnership ended badly. Cobden-Sanderson, determined to keep their typeface from Walker, dumped over 2,600 pounds of type into the Thames River. Years later, divers recovered some of the type, preserving this piece of history.
In Germany, a bridge connecting two villages featured a small statue known as the Little Bridge Man. This statue, with its backside facing one village, symbolized the rivalry between the two communities. Although the original was destroyed, a replica stands today, celebrating the quirky history of the area.
In Utah, farmer Rhett Davis had a dispute with his neighbors over a fence. To make a point, he erected “Redneck Stonehenge,” a row of junked cars planted nose-first into the ground. Davis promised to remove them if anyone complained, showing how spite can sometimes be resolved peacefully.
In the 1930s, the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team raised their outfield fence to block the view of fans watching for free from nearby rooftops. Known as “Connie Mack’s Spite Fence,” it was an attempt to boost ticket sales. However, it didn’t save the team from relocating to Kansas City years later.
In New Orleans, a towering grave marker commemorates Mary Moriarty. Her husband, Daniel, built it to show off his wealth and spite those who looked down on him. The monument stands as a testament to his determination to make a statement, even in death.
Throughout history, people have built spite houses and walls to annoy their neighbors. In Maryland, Dr. John Tyler built a house to block a planned road. In Beirut, a narrow building called “The Grudge” was constructed to block a neighbor’s view. These structures show how far people will go to settle scores.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, originally a tractor manufacturer, decided to build his own sports car after a disagreement with Enzo Ferrari. This led to the creation of Lamborghini’s luxury cars, which rival Ferrari to this day. Similarly, Henry Ford II’s feud with Ferrari inspired the development of the Ford GT40, a car that beat Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
In Connecticut, a butcher built a narrow spite house to annoy his neighbor. However, when his son inherited the property, he tore it down as a gesture of goodwill. This story shows that sometimes, spite can be overcome with kindness.
These tales of spite remind us that while holding grudges can lead to creative and sometimes humorous outcomes, it’s often better to find peaceful resolutions. Thanks for joining us on this journey through history’s most outrageous acts of spite!
Imagine you are living in a small town and have a disagreement with a neighbor. Write a short story about an outrageous act of spite you might commit. Be creative and think about how your actions could have unexpected consequences. Share your story with the class and discuss the potential outcomes.
Inspired by the Battle of the Colors, create your own artwork using colors that represent emotions like anger, jealousy, or rivalry. Use different materials and techniques to express these feelings. Present your artwork to the class and explain the emotions behind your color choices.
Design a model of a spite house or wall using materials like cardboard, paper, or clay. Think about how the structure could creatively block or annoy someone. Present your model to the class and explain the story behind your design and its intended impact.
Participate in a class debate on whether acts of spite are justified or if peaceful resolutions are better. Divide into two groups, with one side arguing for spiteful actions and the other for peaceful solutions. Use examples from the article to support your arguments and practice respectful debating skills.
Research another historical act of spite not mentioned in the article. Create a presentation about the event, including the background, actions taken, and the consequences. Share your findings with the class and discuss how this act compares to those in the article.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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This little patch of sidewalk here in downtown New York City is a testament to the enduring power of spite, as it proudly declares it has never been dedicated for public purposes. Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, and today’s episode of The List Show is all about over-the-top actions taken just to send a message to an offending party. We’ll explore the origin of the Hess Triangle, the literal origin of the phrase “cutting off one’s nose to spite their face,” and the role that spite played in sports car history.
Back in 1913, New York’s municipal government was seizing private properties as part of a public works project to extend Seventh Avenue. David Hess owned property in the area. In the early 1920s, his estate received a tax bill for a remaining portion of the lot, a piece scarcely large enough for the erection of a slot machine. When the Hess estate realized what they had, they leased it to a nearby cigar store and eventually sold the triangle outright. But the message remains on the ground today—a not-so-towering monument to the power of pettiness.
The original idiom about spite refers to those who harm themselves to get back at someone else. According to a chronicler from the 13th century, there’s a real-life story that could have plausibly given rise to this expression. When they heard that Vikings were approaching their monastery in Scotland, a group of 9th-century nuns apparently took matters into their own hands. The abbess, Abby the Younger, told the women to cut off their noses and upper lips as a means of self-defense. The self-inflicted injuries were meant to deter the invaders from assaulting them. However, the Vikings did burn down the monastery with the women inside.
Let’s cleanse the palate with a spiteful story of considerably lower stakes. After a company called Suri Nano Systems developed Vantablack, one of the darkest materials ever created, they licensed it to British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor, meaning he was the only one who could legally use the pigment. Annoyed with this exclusivity, British artist Stuart Semple created a color he described as the “pinkest pink” and arranged it so that anyone trying to purchase his very pink pigment had to attest that they were not Anish Kapoor or affiliated with him. Even that wasn’t enough for Semple, especially once Kapoor managed to get his hands on the pink pigment and posted a very pink middle finger on Instagram. Semple then created Black 3.0, an extremely black acrylic paint that he claims is equivalent to Vantablack. In a fitting end to this colorful saga, MIT engineers created a substance in 2019 that is even blacker than Black 3.0 and Vantablack.
Ezo Kinara, Germany, isn’t a particularly large town, so how did it end up being home to two sporting goods companies, Adidas and Puma? Spite! Adolf and Rudolf Dassler were brothers with a successful company. In 1936, athletes wearing their sneakers won a total of seven gold medals at the Olympic Games. However, the company split up, with Rudolf leading Puma and Adolf creating Adidas—not an acronym for “All Day I Dream About Soccer,” as you might have heard, but just a portmanteau of his first and last names. The brothers reportedly never spoke again after their falling out, which might help explain why we never got a good explanation for the sneaker rivalry.
At the turn of the 20th century, a company called Dove’s Press was founded by Thomas Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker. The men found some success in business together, but their relationship hit the rocks when they divided up assets. Cobden-Sanderson was granted the use of the Dove’s Press typeface, but after his death, the rights were supposed to go to Walker. However, Cobden-Sanderson took matters into his own hands and dumped around 2,600 pounds of mechanical presses into the Thames River to ensure that his beloved typeface would not outlive him. It was said that his motivations may have been snobbish as well as spiteful; he apparently didn’t want Walker to use their once jointly-owned typeface on inferior products.
In 2014, divers recovered about 150 artifacts from the river, preserving some of the history of this moment in typography. Whether the divers were inspired by spite remains unknown. Cobden-Sanderson may have been small in terms of typographic legacy, but he has nothing on the “Little Bridge Man.” This particular bit of spite took the form of a sculpture attached to a bridge over the Rhine River in Germany. The bridge connected Bonn and Buell and was the source of some conflict between the two villages. When the construction project was finally done, it included a small statue of the Little Bridge Man defiantly sticking his backside in the direction of Buell. The residents of Buell embraced the tiny figure, putting him on everything from postcards to banknotes. The bridge was destroyed during World War II, but the statue was recovered and affixed to a new bridge in 1960. It was finally destroyed in an act of vandalism, but today a replica proudly stands on Germany’s Kennedy Bridge.
In Hooper, Utah, farmer Rhett Davis might have offered good advice to his neighbors after a dispute over the smelliness of his property. The two parties reached an impasse; Davis was willing to pay for half of a fence, but his neighbors were not. In response, he erected what he called “Redneck Stonehenge,” popping three junked cars nose-first into the dirt near the dividing line of the two properties. To his credit, Davis said he would remove the offending fence if anyone complained, stating, “I made my point. I’m an easygoing guy; I’ll take them down.”
A more traditional fence was built for reasons of spiteful commerce in the mid-1930s. Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics played at Shibe Park. Fans had to pay to attend games, but many spectators could watch from nearby homes, second-story windows, and makeshift bleachers built on rooftops. Some people even charged admission to their unofficial extra seats outside the stadium. By the opening day of 1935, the team had evidently had enough. The outfield fence was dramatically raised to block the view of freeloading spectators and to cut out the team’s competition for prime baseball-watching real estate. Dubbed “Connie Mack’s Spite Fence,” the real mastermind behind the change was the team’s owner, Jack Scheib. The spite fence ultimately failed to turn the team’s fortunes around, and by the mid-1950s, they relocated to Kansas City. Today, the Athletics, often referred to as the A’s, play their home games in Oakland.
If you visit Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, you’ll notice a grave that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest. It commemorates Mary Moriarty and serves as a monument to her husband Daniel’s ability to hold a grudge. Daniel, a successful businessman in real estate, felt that his newfound wealth prevented him from gaining the social status he deserved. When forced to choose a permanent resting place for his beloved wife, he erected a massive 80-foot grave marker that took almost 20 years to complete. The height of the grave may have been conceived as an opportunity for his late wife to metaphorically look down on their critics.
There are enough spite houses out there to build a whole spite village. Let’s start with Dr. John Tyler, who lived in Frederick, Maryland, in the early 1800s. City officials planned to build a road right through Tyler’s land. Rather than let that happen, Tyler dug into the legal code and discovered a law prohibiting road construction through existing buildings. He quickly got a builder to start construction on a structure right where the proposed road would come through. When officials saw what had happened, they were forced to abandon their plans.
Alba Assa, also known as “The Grudge,” is a narrow ode to narrow-mindedness. The Beirut building is just 13 feet at its widest and two feet at its narrowest, built primarily to block the view of a neighboring property belonging to the owner of the grudge’s brother.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, is home to some of the United States’ most prestigious universities, but that didn’t stop Francis O’Reilly from doing something pretty foolish in 1908. O’Reilly wanted his neighbor to buy an eight-foot-wide parcel of land. When he was rebuffed, he responded by building a spite house on the property. Today, the oddly shaped building is home to a local interior design firm.
About a century earlier, Captain Avery Brown built a home in Mystic, Connecticut. Brown had a nice view of the nearby river until one John Fellows built a giant home directly blocking Brown’s view of the water for reasons that remain unclear. Instead of a whole spite house, sometimes all you need is a little resentment in your heart and one spite wall. Ireland’s Jealous Wall is one such structure, labeled a sham ruin. Sibling rivalry was at the heart of its construction; Robert Roguefort built it supposedly to block the view of his brother’s more ornate home next door.
Before he became sports car royalty, Ferruccio Lamborghini was a tractor manufacturer and generally happy Ferrari owner. At one point, the clutch on his car wasn’t working properly, leading him to approach Enzo Ferrari. There’s some disagreement over the exact sequence of events, but eventually, Lamborghini became incensed enough at Ferrari that he vowed to build a superior car. He enlisted the help of five former Ferrari employees and eventually released a series of celebrated luxury cars to rival Ferrari.
Around the same time, Enzo got into another spat that helped give birth to a competitor. When Henry Ford II wanted his company to get into racing, he approached Ferrari with an offer to buy a controlling stake in the Italian company. Ferrari initially agreed but eventually pulled out, enraging Ford. In response, Ford ordered his company to build a car that could beat Ferrari at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race. That challenge turned into the Ford GT40, which successfully knocked Ferrari off its perch as the champion of Le Mans by 1966.
All this spite—productive and otherwise—has left a bad taste in my mouth, so let’s end with one story of spite overcome: the story of Connecticut’s Collinsville Spite House from the 1800s. This follows the familiar contours of many spiteful tales—a property owner with plenty of extra money and ill will builds a structure to stick their thumb in their neighbor’s eye. In this case, the property owner was a butcher, and his chosen medium was a narrow building with Venetian blinds blocking the windows. However, when the man’s son inherited the property, he promptly tore it down in a gesture of goodwill. Leave it to the son of a butcher to know when to squash some beef.
We’ve got an upcoming episode about the animals of Chernobyl. If you know any fun facts about these radioactive critters, drop them in the comments for a chance to be featured in that episode. Thanks for watching!
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This version removes any inappropriate language and maintains a respectful tone throughout.
Spite – A desire to hurt, annoy, or offend someone – In history, many wars were fought out of spite between rival nations.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs – Learning about history helps us understand how societies have evolved over time.
Rivalry – Competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field – The rivalry between Athens and Sparta was a significant part of ancient Greek history.
Symbol – A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract – The dove is often used as a symbol of peace in many cultures.
Defiance – Open resistance or bold disobedience – The Boston Tea Party was an act of defiance against British rule.
Competition – The activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others – The competition between European countries for colonies led to many conflicts in history.
Monument – A statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a famous or notable person or event – The Lincoln Memorial is a monument dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln.
Grudges – A persistent feeling of ill will or resentment resulting from a past insult or injury – Holding grudges between different groups can lead to long-lasting conflicts in society.
Community – A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common – The community came together to celebrate their shared history and culture.
Kindness – The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate – Acts of kindness can help build strong and supportive communities throughout history.
