Historical Parcel Lots in Washington D.C., 1905 to Present

Parcel lots represent unsubdivided lands within the District of Columbia, primarily north of Florida Avenue and east of the Anacostia River. The tracking of these parcels began in 1905 by Act of Congress, and their boundaries were historically recorded in large books by the DCRA's Office of the Surveyor. The data is provided by the District of Columbia government and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Map historical land ownership patterns based on the parcel numbering system established in 1905.
• Analyze urban development boundaries based on the description of parcels being outside the original city limits and Georgetown.
• Study the evolution of land subdivision processes based on the transition from parcel-based to lot-of-record-based permitting described.

Strengths

• Historical coverage begins in 1905, providing a long-term view of land records.
• Data is provided in multiple geospatial formats (KML, GeoJSON, CSV) for flexibility.
• License is CC-BY-4.0, allowing for broad reuse and sharing.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description notes historical boundaries were 'in many cases approximated', suggesting potential positional inaccuracies.

Provenance

Source

District of Columbia government, via Data.gov.

Collection Method

Likely digitized from historical land records and surveyor's books maintained by DCRA's Office of the Surveyor.

Time Range

1905 to present.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 08:34:16.213109; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Washington D.C., specifically the old 'County of Washington' north of Florida Avenue and east of the Anacostia River.