A lot suitable for a house.
1661. [Let] none have less than ten acres for their houselots and five acres of meadow.—‘Hist. of Groton,’ Mass. (1848), p. 16. (N.E.D.)
The N.E.D. also gives references 1693, 1706.
1805. “House Lots” advertised for sale in The Repertory, Boston, Nov. 26.
1806. A handsome House Lot, containing one acre of land.—Advt., Mass. Spy, Aug. 27.
1821. This use of the word lot is, I believe, American only. The division of land in a township was originally, and in may cases still is, made by lot; and the portion which fell to each individual was called his lot.… Thus, one was his house or home-lot; another his plain-lot; another his mountain-lot, &c. according to the circumstances.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ i. 305–6, note. (Italics in the original.)
