Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content
  • Feedback
    • This is a Non-Federal dataset covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov.

    Parcel Lots (Historical)

    Metadata Updated: November 5, 2025

    These are lands still within the District of Columbia that has never been subdivided into either Record or Tax Lots through the two offices that manage land records (OS & RPTA), this land is referred to as Parcels, expressed as fractions (Ex Parcel 117/36). In this example, the number “36” would be the 36th out conveyance from original Parcel 117. The tracking of parcels was started in 1905 when, by Act of Congress, all the District’s unsubdivided properties which were mostly rural farms at the time were given parcel numbers. Their boundaries were also depicted (in many cases approximated), in large books in DCRA's Office of the Surveyor. Until the late 1960s, building permits were routinely issued by the city for new construction on Parcels, but today all Parcels, like Tax Lots, must be converted into subdivision Lots of Record before permits will be issued for exterior work. Parcels are only found in the old “County of Washington,” north of Florida Ave and east of the Anacostia River. There are no Parcels found within the original city limits or Georgetown. Parcels are not in Squares. There are examples where parcel land may be physically located in the middle of a city Square, but Parcels are not considered part of a Square until they are duly subdivided by the D.C. Surveyor’s Office.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. Non-Federal: This dataset is covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov. License: Creative Commons Attribution

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 30, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date November 5, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from DC data

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 30, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date November 5, 2025
    Publisher Department of Buildings
    Maintainer
    Identifier https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=333a674a1a1748ffad283fca523b5a49&sublayer=32
    Data First Published 2015-02-27T21:10:02.000Z
    Data Last Modified 2025-05-19T18:24:55.000Z
    Category geospatial
    Public Access Level public
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 0f5cf8e4-2aa7-4426-941e-c2d984625cf0
    Harvest Source Id b05f955a-65d6-4288-9558-15a5ebc74e36
    Harvest Source Title DC data
    Homepage URL https://opendata.dc.gov/datasets/DCGIS::parcel-lots-historical
    License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial -77.0996,38.8106,-76.9317,38.9960
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash a1bc8ae2dcb34b9b359255bd4b69d2a56911c8b654d2847813e4da1fb7cdf47c
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -77.0996, 38.8106, -77.0996, 38.9960, -76.9317, 38.9960, -76.9317, 38.8106, -77.0996, 38.8106}

    Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.