Historic Unsubdivided Land Parcels in Washington D.C.

Parcel Lots are lands within the District of Columbia's old County of Washington that have never been subdivided into standard lots, with tracking initiated by an Act of Congress in 1905. The data represents properties, historically rural farms, that require conversion to subdivision lots before exterior construction permits are issued. The dataset includes geographic boundaries and parcel identifiers.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial distribution of Parcel land relative to city Squares and historic boundaries like Florida Ave and the Anacostia River.
• Track the subdivision history and conveyance sequence using parcel fraction identifiers (e.g., Parcel 117/36).
• Identify properties eligible for development by filtering for Parcels that have not been converted into subdivision Lots of Record.
• Study land use change by comparing historic Parcel boundaries from 1905 with current zoning and permit data.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative District of Columbia government organization.
• Parcel tracking provides a continuous record dating back to its initiation in 1905.
• Available in multiple geospatial formats including GEOJSON, KML, and ArcGIS REST API for interoperability.

Limitations

• The dataset's geographic scope is limited to the historic County of Washington, excluding the original city limits and Georgetown, creating a spatial bias.
• Parcel boundaries were historically approximated and depicted in large books, which may introduce inaccuracies in the digital representation.
• Sample data and specific record counts (rows) are unavailable, preventing assessment of dataset scale and completeness.

Provenance

Source

District of Columbia government, managed by offices such as DCRA's Office of the Surveyor.

Collection Method

Created from historic land records and large books where parcel boundaries were depicted, digitized and maintained by the relevant D.C. offices.

Time Range

Parcel tracking started in 1905; temporal coverage extends from that point forward.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-03-18, indicating recent maintenance.

Geography

District of Columbia, specifically the old County of Washington north of Florida Ave and east of the Anacostia River.