diff --git a/libpysal/weights/_contW_lists.py b/libpysal/weights/_contW_lists.py
index 8fe7cbfe8..ea456b258 100644
--- a/libpysal/weights/_contW_lists.py
+++ b/libpysal/weights/_contW_lists.py
@@ -17,14 +17,23 @@ def _get_boundary_points(shape):
     Recursively handle polygons vs. multipolygons to
     extract the boundary point set from each. 
     """
-    if shape.type.lower() == 'polygon':
+    if shape.type.lower() == "polygon" and \
+       isinstance(shape, dict) and \
+       'rings' in shape:
+        return _get_boundary_points(shape.boundary()) # returns a polyline (path)        
+    elif shape.type.lower() == 'polygon':
         shape = shape.boundary
         return _get_boundary_points(shape)
+    
     elif shape.type.lower() == 'linestring':
         return list(map(tuple, list(zip(*shape.coords.xy))))
     elif shape.type.lower() == 'multilinestring':
         return list(it.chain(*(list(zip(*shape.coords.xy))
                                  for shape in shape)))
+    elif shape.type.lower() == 'polyline':
+        coords = []
+        [coords.extend([tuple(p) for p in path]) for path in shape['paths']]   
+        return coords
     elif shape.type.lower() == 'multipolygon':
         return list(it.chain(*(_get_boundary_points(part.boundary) 
                                for part in shape)))