diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index de9fd8a5..67809398 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -78,4 +78,14 @@ AS_IF([test "x$enable_sse2" != "xno"], [
 
 AX_BLAS()
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([data-download],
+              [  --disable-data-download    Disable downloading data],
+              [case "${enableval}" in
+                yes)  DOWNLOAD_DATA=true ;;
+                no) DOWNLOAD_DATA=false ;;
+                *) AC_MSG_ERROR([bad value ${enableval} for --disable-data-download]) ;;
+              esac], [DOWNLOAD_DATA=true])
+
+AM_CONDITIONAL([DOWNLOAD_DATA], [test "x$DOWNLOAD_DATA" = "xtrue"])
+
 AC_OUTPUT
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index c7d9e9a0..b50c3aa8 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -63,8 +63,10 @@ language_classifier_test_CFLAGS = $(CFLAGS_O3)
 
 pkginclude_HEADERS = libpostal.h
 
+if DOWNLOAD_DATA
 all-local:
-	./libpostal_data download all $(datadir)/libpostal
+	${srcdir}/libpostal_data download all $(datadir)/libpostal
+endif
 
 lexer: scanner.re
 	re2c -F -s -b -8 -o scanner.c scanner.re