Downloads
Overview
The table is intended to provide municipalities, residences, businesses, and application developers with a comprehensive list of standardized addresses for cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth. The table leverages the work done by MassGIS of compiling, standardizing, maintaining and editing addresses for the Next Generation 911 system project.
Address sources include the Voter Registration List from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, site addresses from municipal departments (primarily assessors), and customer address lists from utilities. Addresses from utilities were “anonymized” to protect customer privacy. The MAD was also validated for completeness using the Emergency Service List (a list of land line addresses) from Verizon. There is no spatial geometry in this data product.
MAD addresses have been normalized and standardized and are in the process of being cleaned up. Part of the cleanup process involves reconciling records that are currently in our Master Address table as distinct addresses but, in actuality, are one and the same. An example of this kind of error is "14 MAIN STREET Unit 2" and "14 MAIN STREET 2nd Floor". In this case, the unit and floor values are intended to be the same and these records should be aggregated in the Master Address table.
Although the address list is derived from many sources and we have tried to make the list as comprehensive as possible, some address will still be missed. These missing addresses are a reflection of the source information. If an address is not in the Voter Registration List, the Emergency Service List or Assessing data, then it may be left out. Typical missing addresses include:
- Addresses associated with unit information, e.g. we have "14 MAIN ST" but are missing "14 MAIN ST Unit 1"
- Addresses associated with duplexes, e.g. we have "14 A MAIN ST" but are missing "14 B MAIN ST"
- Addresses associated with businesses, in particular strip malls
In the MAD, address records are being flagged where we are not confident in the validity of their existence. These low confidence records are excluded from this data product. MassGIS staff are reviewing such addresses in the field as part of a "Field Data Capture" (FDC) project.
This table is an export from the view named MAD.MADQT_ADVANCED_ADDR in MassGIS' ArcSDE (VWP instance) database.
The Advanced Address List is different from the Basic Address List in that it contains parsed values that relate to the address number and street name fields and includes the Master Address ID (ADDRESS_ID). This ID can be used to synchronize with the MAD, facilitating the identification of new records between exports and allowing for the import of local data into the MAD. Additionally, the street name field in the Advanced List contains only street name values, while in the Basic list it combines location information with the street name in that field.
Data are available from MassGIS for all cities and towns except Boston. For Boston, the Boston Street Address Management (SAM) Addresses may be downloaded from the BostonMaps Open Data site in a spreadsheet.
Attributes
The Advanced Address List contains the following fields:
| Name | Type / Length | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OBJECTID | OID (Numeric) | ESRI geodatabase ID. |
| ADDRESS_ID | Long Integer / 10 | Unique ID for a standardized address record. Generated via sequence and trigger. |
| NAD_ID | String / 38 | Unique address ID in GUID format for National Address Database. |
| ADDRESS | String / 200 | A concatenation of ADDR_NUM, a space and STREETNAME. |
| ADDR_NUM | String / 30 | The standardized version of the complete address number retrieved from a parsed address or pre-parsed address number components. Derived from FULL_NUMBER_STARDARDIZED value in MAD_MASTER_ADDRESS. |
| STREETNAME | String / 80 | Standardized street name. |
| REL_LOC | String / 80 | Standardized relative location information relative to either the address, the street referenced by the address, or both. Common values include 'OFF', 'REAR', 'NEAR', 'BEHIND' etc. |
| SITE_NAME | String / 200 | Standardized name of site. (i.e. 'BRIARWOOD CONDOMINIUMS' or 'HARVARD UNIVERSITY'. |
| BUILDING | String / 100 | Building designation or a formal building name if it has one. (i.e. 'A' from BLDG A, UNIT 1 or 'MUGAR SCIENCE CENTER') |
| WING | String / 50 | Standardized value of subaddress information portion of an address representing a 'Wing' designation. (i.e. 'EAST WING' from 'MUSEUM OF INTERESTING ART, EAST WING, ANTIQUITIES ROOM'). |
| FLOOR | String / 30 | Standardized value for the subaddress portion of an address representing a 'Floor' designation. (i.e. '3' in 'BLDG A, FLR 3, UNIT 1'). |
| UNIT | String / 40 | Standardized value for the subaddress portion of an address representing a 'Unit' designation. (i.e. '1' in 'BLDG A, FLR 3, UNIT 1'). |
| ROOM | String / 50 | Standardized room or suite value of subaddress information found in address. (i.e. '1601' from 'WARREN TOWERS RESIDENCE HALL, RM 1601'). |
| NEIGHBORHD | String / 50 | Neighborhood name representing a sub-community location of the standardized street name. Adds an additional measure of geographic accuracy/uniqueness, especially for duplicated street names in a given MSAG community. |
| COMMUNITY | String / 30 | Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) Community name. |
| TOWN | String / 21 | Official municipality name. |
| ZIPCODE | String / 10 | Address zip code (likely derived from ZIP+4 and MSAG/street name lookup or HERE data, not necessarily the address' original source material) |
| TOWN_ID | Small Integer / 5 | Unique ID for a municipality |
| STATUS | String / 30 | Domain values represent the address' status in regards to its association with any address multipoint, reviewability, recent edits, or obsolescence. |
| ADDR_CLASS | String / 25 | A value that indicates the address general classification. Initially will only identify residential (RES) vs. non-residential, but the domain is extensible. |
| NUM1_PFX | String / 6 | Prefix to address number, or prefix to first number if the full address number is a range. (i.e. 'A' in 'A2') |
| NUM1 | Long Integer / 10 | Integer portion of address number, or first number if the full address number is a range. |
| NUM1_SFX | String / 6 | Suffix or fraction associated with the address number or associated with the first number if the full address number is a range. (i.e. 'A' in '14A-14D' or '1/2' in '6 1/2') |
| NUM2_PFX | String / 6 | Prefix to second address number if the full address number is a range. (i.e. 'B' in 'A2-B2') |
| NUM2 | Long Integer / 10 | Integer portion of second address number when the full address number is a range. (i.e. 12 in '10-12') |
| NUM2_SFX | String / 6 | Suffix or fraction associated with the 2nd address number if the full address number is a range. (i.e. 'D' in '14A-14D' or '1/2' in '6-6 1/2') |
| PRE_MOD | String / 25 | Pre-modifier portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'OLD' in OLD MARKET STREET) |
| PRE_DIR | String / 15 | Pre-directional portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'NORTH' in NORTH MARKET STREET) |
| PRE_TYPE | String / 25 | Pre-type portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'AVENUE' in AVENUE LAFAYETTE) |
| BASE | String / 75 | Base name portion of the parsed street name. (i.e.'MAIN' in 'SOUTH MAIN STREET') |
| POST_TYPE | String / 40 | Post-type portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'AVENUE' in GERMAINE AVENUE) |
| USPS_TYPE | String / 12 | USPS Pub 28 version of the post-type portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'AVE' from SMITH AVENUE) |
| POST_DIR | String / 15 | Post-directional portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'SOUTH' in MILBROOK AVENUE SOUTH) |
| POST_MOD | String / 25 | Post-modifier portion of parsed street name. (i.e. 'EXTENSION' in HARRISON TURNPIKE EXTENSION) |
| DATE_CREATED | Long Integer / 10 | The date this address record was created and added to the master address database, either by field data capture or MassGIS staff. Is not intended to represent the date the address legally came into existence. |
Domain for STATUS (Address Status):
| ACTIVE | Address is assigned to an address point. |
|---|---|
| INACTIVE | Address was previously active, but is no longer in use. May or may not have been replaced with a new address. |
| UNASSIGNED | Address not yet assigned to an address point. |
| SITE_REVIEW | Address belongs to a site and requires review before becoming ACTIVE as the address can probably be further disaggregated to the building level. |
| REVIEW | Address requires review before becoming active (for any reasons other than site disaggregation). |
| NOT_FOUND | Address underwent review and a geographic location for it could not be found. |
| PARENT | Address record is temporary and represents an aggregation of other unit-specific addresses. This record's MASTER_ADDRESS_ID is equal to its PARENT_ADDRESS_ID. |
| MODIFIED | This address record is active and had one or more address component fields edited during FDC/local review. |
| ADDED | This address record represents an address that was added as a new or missing address identified during FDC. It should not have an address point ID. |
| UNLINKED | The address point ID previously associated with this address record was removed during FDC/local review. (but edit may have been overridden) |
| LINKED | This address is active and was associated with a non-geocoded address point during FDC/local review. |
Notes
Community vs. Town
There are several fields within the Advanced Address list related to area; two of these are Community and Town. The Town value is the official city/town name in which that address occurs while the Community value is the name of the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) Community in which the street related to the address occurs. (The MSAG is a comprehensive list of all street names used in the 911 system). These two fields are almost always the same but will be different when:
- A structure is on or near a town boundary and the address for that structure is associated with a street in an adjacent town. The adjacent MSAG Community name will appear in the Community field. See the example Addresses in Your Town, Street in Adjacent Town below.
- The town is composed of multiple MSAG Communities. During the implementation of E9-1-1 in the early 1990s, towns were encouraged to manage their addresses so that the combination of the address number, street name and town name were unique. Almost all towns complied and most of the duplicate addresses were eliminated. In most cases, cities and towns changed the street name in order to keep addresses unique, but eleven towns chose to manage their duplicates by using community values. The community value is the name of the MSAG Community in which the respective street occurs. Towns that have these MSAG Communities are Barnstable, Boston, Deerfield, Dennis, Nantucket, Northampton, Palmer, Springfield, and the three towns (Ayer, Harvard and Shirley) in which Fort Devens is located. The MSAG Community names will appear in the Community field for these towns and are included strictly to maintain the uniqueness of streets. See the example Village Names below for further explanation.
Neighborhoods
There are rare cases where duplicate street names still exist and are not covered by the use of MSAG Community. In these cases, MassGIS adds a value to the Neighborhood field in order to ensure uniqueness within the MAD. The majority of these cases occur in Newton, although there are other examples. See the example Neighborhood Names Used to Differentiate Duplicate Streets below for further explanation.
Examples
Addresses in Your Town, Street in an Adjacent Town
The Community field will be populated with the adjacent MSAG Community value when an address is located in the queried city or town but the street is geographically within an adjacent city or town. An example of this is Sophia Drive in Auburn. There are addresses along Sophia Drive where the houses are within Auburn but Sophia Drive is geographically in Worcester. In this case, Worcester will appear in Community to indicate that the street is in the adjacent city.
Village Names
Because the MSAG was one of the primary sources used in the creation of the streets database, MSAG Community values are available and are sometimes necessary to keep addresses unique. Towns that are divided into MSAG Communities are Barnstable, Boston, Deerfield, Dennis, Nantucket, Northampton, Palmer, Springfield, and the three towns (Ayer, Harvard and Shirley) in which Fort Devens is located. MSAG Community values do not represent a comprehensive listing of the villages for that city or town. Because their sole function was to keep street names unique, they were only created where there was ambiguity in regards to duplicate street names. So, some villages that exist within the cities and towns mentioned above will not appear in Community. For example, Allston is a village name in Boston but does not appear in the list of MSAG Communities. Allston addresses were lumped in with Brighton when MSAG Communities were created because there were no duplicate streets names within that village. Another example of this is East Dennis, which is not an MSAG Community in Dennis.
In Barnstable, there are two Bay Streets, one in the village of Hyannis and the other in Osterville. Both of these village names are MSAG Communities in Barnstable and are shown in this example from the Advanced Address table:
Neighborhood Names Used to Differentiate Duplicate Streets
A Neighborhood value can also be appended to the Street Name and Address fields. In the vast majority of cases, the combination of address number, street name and community values keep an address unique. There are, however, a few cases where this is not true. To resolve this issue, MassGIS has added a Neighborhood value to keep the addresses distinct from each other. An example where the neighborhood value is appended is Elm Avenue in Bourne.
There are two Elm Avenues in Bourne that are completely separate from each other and have overlapping address ranges; the two Elm Avenues are selected in the image above. In order to keep the addresses distinct, neighborhood values of Cataumet and Monument Beach were appended. Neighborhood values are determined from USGS topological maps or local sources.
Reporting Errors and Omissions
Address assignment is a responsibility of municipal government. MassGIS cannot update the MAD unless the update comes from an appropriate municipal source. If users have address information that is not included in this product or they see errors in the data, they should contact the department in the relevant municipality responsible for tracking official addresses and for distributing address updates. Refer to a List of Address Authority Departments in each city and town and visit https://www.mass.gov/lists/cities-and-towns for how to contact individual municipalities. If the address error or omission is confirmed by the municipality, the community’s addressing authority should notify MassGIS. Updates from municipalities are incorporated into the MAD and will appear in future address file downloads. All municipalities have been contacted concerning how to notify MassGIS of new or changed addresses as part of ensuring all their addresses are included in the NextGeneration 911 system. If the addressing authority is not familiar with how to notify MassGIS of new addresses or address errors, they can ask MassGIS how to submit this information by sending email to massgismail@mass.gov.
Maintenance
MassGIS is actively updating these data and the downloadable files are refreshed weekly.