The high ground Salt Lake City
The neighbourhood that broke the plat, and the bench above it
The Avenues and the east bench.
Blocks of two and a half acres where the rest of the city got ten, streets 82.5 feet wide where the rest got 132, and a territorial ordinance in 1860 to make the deviation legal. It was the cheap part of town for thirty years because water would not climb the hill. Here is how it works, what the historic overlay means if you own here, and what sits above it.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Salt Lake City is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Salt Lake County partner agent.
Start here
The one part of the city that refused the ten acre block.
Walk north from South Temple and within one street the city changes shape under your feet. The Avenues were surveyed in the 1850s as Plat D, on ground that had been written off as the dry bench, and whoever drew them threw out the arithmetic that governs everywhere else. Blocks of two and a half acres instead of ten. Streets 82.5 feet wide instead of 132. Four lots to a block instead of eight.
The deviation was not quietly tolerated. It was significant enough that a territorial ordinance in 1860 had to be passed to legalise it, which tells you how seriously the original plat was taken. The street names took another twenty five years to settle down: some of them carried names such as Fruit and Garden before the scheme most people know arrived by around 1885, with avenues numbered 1st through 18th running east and west and streets lettered A through V running north and south.
What that produces is a walking neighbourhood inside a driving city. The blocks are short, the houses are close to the pavement, and the distances your feet expect actually match the distances on the map, which is not true anywhere below South Temple. It is also why every address up here confuses a visitor for the first day and then makes complete sense on the second.
The Avenues in numbers
2.5 acres
the block, against ten everywhere else
82.5 ft
the street, against 132 everywhere else
1860
the ordinance that legalised the deviation
100
square blocks in the historic district
Why it was cheap first
There was no water up here, and for thirty years that decided everything.
The Avenues are now among the most sought after streets in the city. They started as the part nobody wanted, and the reason is a single utility.
The whole 1847 plan depended on gravity fed ditch water, and ditch water does not run uphill. The bench sat above the ditches, which meant that for the first decades households up here hauled their water. Residents were still doing it in 1884, and the area was not fully serviced until 1908. That single fact explains why the lots were smaller, why the houses came later than the ones below, and why the neighbourhood filled in over sixty years rather than twenty.
Two pieces of infrastructure changed it. A pipeline arrived in the 1880s, and in the 1890s streetcar lines were run along 1st, 3rd and 6th Avenues. Between the pipe and the tram the bench became buildable and then desirable, and the building boom that followed is exactly what you are looking at when you walk it now.
The result is an unusually legible piece of architectural history. The Avenues Historic District covers roughly a hundred square blocks and includes more than a hundred architect designed houses, with the great majority built between the 1860s and the 1920s, most of them one and a half to two and a half storeys, and a good deal of the original iron and stone fencing still in place under mature street trees. It is on the National Register, although local sources give the listing year variously as 1978 and 1980, and this page is not going to pretend to know which is right.
It was the cheap part of town for thirty years because the water would not climb the hill.
The part that affects an owner
Nine local districts, and one form you will meet if you own in them.
This is written in plain language and it is current as of August 2026. It is a description of a city process, not legal advice, and the city's own planning division is the place to confirm anything specific to a property.
Salt Lake City carries nine local historic districts: the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Central City, City Creek and Memory Grove, Exchange Place, South Temple, University, Westmoreland Place and Yalecrest. A local district is a different instrument from a National Register listing. The Register is largely honorific. The local overlay has teeth.
In practice it works like this. If you want to change something on the outside of a building inside one of these districts, and the change is visible from a public street, you need a certificate of appropriateness before you do it. Minor work is signed off administratively by planning staff, which is quick. Larger work, and anything involving demolition or new construction, goes to the Historic Landmark Commission at a public meeting. Interior work is not covered.
None of that should read as a warning. Buyers who want the streetscape they fell in love with to still be there in twenty years are the reason the rule exists. What it does mean is that a renovation budget in the Avenues carries a review timeline that a renovation budget five miles south does not, and it is far cheaper to find that out before an offer than after one. Salt Lake City Planning is on 801-535-7700, and the current district boundaries and application forms are on slc.gov.
Confirm the overlay against the actual parcel, not the neighbourhood name. District boundaries do not follow the way people talk about neighbourhoods, and a street can have the overlay on one side and not the other. Ask the city for the specific address rather than assuming from the area, get the answer in writing before you write an offer, and if a seller tells you a past alteration was approved, ask to see the certificate rather than taking it on trust. Anything beyond the process itself, easements, covenants, or a dispute over past work, belongs with a Utah attorney rather than with an agent.
The green space nobody calls a park
Nine and a half miles of road inside a cemetery people run in.
The Salt Lake City Cemetery occupies the top of the Avenues, entered near 200 N Street, and it functions as the neighbourhood's largest open space whether or not anybody calls it that. It is open dawn to dusk, it carries roughly nine and a half miles of internal roads, and on any given morning those roads are full of people walking dogs, running hills and pushing prams. That is not disrespect, it is how the neighbourhood uses it, and the city maintains it accordingly.
It is also older than the city's incorporation. The first burial was on 27 September 1848, a young woman named Mary Wallace. A twenty acre survey followed in 1849 and the cemetery was permanently established in 1851, with George Wallace, her father, appointed as the first sexton. Roughly 120,000 people have been buried here since, which is a larger number than the living population of most Utah cities.
Two details make it worth an hour rather than a walk through. The first is that the ground reads as a straight history of the city in stone, from 1840s markers to last month's. The second is a single Commonwealth war grave, a Canadian soldier of the First World War, which is an unexpected thing to come across on a bench above the Great Basin. The city publishes an interactive grave map, so a specific plot is findable before you set off rather than after an hour of wandering.
The etiquette, since people ask
Use the roads rather than cutting between plots, keep dogs on a lead and clear up after them, give way to anything that is obviously a service, and keep the pace and the volume down near one. Sunrise and the hour before dusk are the quiet windows and also the best light over the valley. It is a working cemetery with burials most weeks, and the reason it stays open to everybody is that visitors behave as though it is.
The canyon behind the Capitol
A memorial park, a locked gate, and a road that has changed its rules.
This is the closest canyon to downtown in the whole valley, and the access rules on it as of August 2026 are not the rules most guides describe. Read this section before you drive up expecting the system you read about somewhere else.
The bottom of it is Memory Grove, a memorial park in the canyon mouth immediately below the Capitol. The ground was acquired in 1902 and the park was dedicated on 24 June 1924, and what has accumulated in it since is a small collection of set pieces: the Pagoda, the pond known as the Harbor of Beauty, the 145th Field Artillery monument of 1927, and the Meditation Chapel of 1948. There is an off leash dog area at the lower end. It is a five minute walk from the Capitol steps and it feels like a different city.
Above it the canyon road climbs about eleven and a half miles from 4,695 feet to 6,052, reached through the gate where Bonneville Boulevard meets Canyon Road, with the Canyon Gate House about three hundred feet up. Rotary Park, the traditional turnaround for a family afternoon, sits about four and a half miles in and dates from 1921. For most of living memory the canyon ran an alternating system, vehicles on some days and bicycles on others, which is the thing everybody remembers about it.
That system is currently suspended. As of 2026 the canyon is closed to private vehicles for the duration of the water treatment plant rebuild, bicycles are allowed above Bonneville Boulevard on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays only, and the picnic sites are closed to reservation. It is still open to walk. If you have read about odd and even days anywhere, including in older guides, that is the historic rule rather than the current one, and the city's own pages are the place to check before you go.
The permanent rules are worth carrying regardless of the phase. This is a protected drinking water watershed, so dogs must be leashed and are barred entirely above picnic site 16, there is no swimming or wading in the creek at any point, and bicycles are held to fifteen miles an hour. Those are watershed rules rather than park rules, and they do not relax.
Up the hill and along it
A peak, a fort, a university and two crossroads with bookshops.
| The place | The number that matters | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| Ensign Peak | 5,417 feet, about a mile round trip | Roughly 374 feet of gain from 1002 North Ensign Vista Drive, climbed on 26 July 1847 |
| Fort Douglas | Established 26 October 1862 | A National Historic Landmark District of 25 acres out of a peak 10,525, with a museum in former barracks |
| The University of Utah | About 1,534 acres | Founded 1850 as the University of Deseret and moved onto the bench in 1900 |
| Research Park | Founded 1968 on about 300 acres | The university's research campus, and the way most people reach the foothill trailheads |
| Yalecrest | National Register, 8 November 2007 | Houses mostly from 1920 to 1940, the first in 1912, heavy on Tudor and English Cottage |
| 9th and 9th, 15th and 15th | 900 East 900 South, 1500 East 1500 South | Two small crossroads business pockets; the bookshop at 15th and 15th opened in 1977 |
All six sit within about four miles of each other on the same rising ground, which is the argument for the east bench in one line. Distances are short and the climb is constant, so a map underestimates every walk up here by a noticeable margin.
Ensign Peak, and why it is a short walk with a long story
It is a mile round trip with about 374 feet of gain, from a trailhead at 1002 North Ensign Vista Drive at the very top of the Avenues, and it is the standard sunset walk for anybody living up here. A small group climbed it on 26 July 1847, two days after the wagons arrived, to look at the basin they had just committed to. A monument went up in 1934, standing 18.47 feet high and built of about a hundred stones, and the nature park around the trailhead was developed in 1996 and dedicated on 26 July 1997.
Take water and take a hat. It is short, it is steep in places, and there is no shade whatsoever between the car and the summit.
Fort Douglas, which is why the university is where it is
Camp Douglas was established on 26 October 1862 under Colonel Patrick Edward Connor, positioned on the bench with a clear view over the city below it, which was not an accident. It was rebuilt in Red Butte sandstone between 1873 and 1876, listed on the National Register on 15 June 1970 and made a National Historic Landmark District on 15 May 1975. Twenty five acres carry the landmark designation out of a post that peaked at 10,525.
The post closed on 26 October 1991 and most of the ground went to the university, which is a large part of why the campus occupies the bench at all. The Fort Douglas Military Museum still operates out of former barracks buildings, and the parade ground and officers' row are walkable in an afternoon from the university's upper campus.
Keep reading
More of Salt Lake City on The Local.
Things to do
The top 12, ranked
Twelve picks, ranked, with what each costs and the day it actually works on.
Read the guideThe founding block
Temple Square
Forty years to build, shut since 2019, and a 2027 open house you can already diary.
Read the guideThe spine
City Creek and Main Street
A creek daylighted through a mall, a roof that opens, and an 1864 shop front.
Read the guideThe warehouses
The Granary District
Grain silos, a brewery that took back an 1884 name, and the block with the murals.
Read the guideThe south side
Liberty Park and Sugar House
Eighty acres round an 1852 mill, and a park where the state prison used to stand.
Read the guideThe garden
Red Butte and the foothills
A state arboretum, a concert lawn, and a canyon behind it nobody may walk into.
Read the guideThe New SLC
The airport
The first new hub airport this century, four miles out, and that walk to A West.
Read the guideAfter dark
Nightlife and the liquor rules
What the state sells, what the shop sells, and the pour limit written into code.
Read the guideMoving here
Living with the inversion
What the bench buys you in January, and what it costs you in the driveway.
Read the guideThe companion
Salt Lake City, in full
The founding block, the bench, the spine, the warehouses and the season, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The Avenues, answered.
Because they were surveyed separately in the 1850s as Plat D, for houses rather than for farm lots. Blocks are two and a half acres against the standard ten, streets are 82.5 feet wide against the standard 132, and there are four lots to a block against eight. The deviation was significant enough that a territorial ordinance had to be passed in 1860 to legalise it. The lettered and numbered street scheme settled by about 1885.
Avenues are numbered 1st through 18th and run east and west. Streets are lettered A through V and run north and south. Getting those two axes the wrong way round is the single most common navigation mistake up here, and it will put you several blocks out in the wrong direction. Some Avenues streets carried names such as Fruit and Garden before the current scheme arrived in the mid 1880s.
Salt Lake City has nine local historic districts, including the Avenues, and inside one an exterior change visible from a public street needs a certificate of appropriateness before the work is done. Minor work is approved administratively by planning staff; larger work, demolition and new construction go to the Historic Landmark Commission at a public meeting. Interior work is not covered. Confirm the overlay against the specific parcel with Salt Lake City Planning on 801-535-7700, because boundaries do not follow neighbourhood names.
Yes, and a great many people do. It is open dawn to dusk, it carries roughly nine and a half miles of internal roads at the top of the Avenues, and it serves as the neighbourhood's largest open space in practice. Use the roads rather than cutting between plots, keep dogs leashed and clear up after them, give way to anything that is obviously a service, and keep the volume down nearby. It is a working cemetery, and that etiquette is why it stays open to everybody.
Older than the city's incorporation. The first burial was on 27 September 1848, a young woman named Mary Wallace. A twenty acre survey followed in 1849 and the cemetery was permanently established in 1851, with George Wallace appointed as the first sexton. Roughly 120,000 people have been buried there since. It also holds one Commonwealth war grave, a Canadian soldier of the First World War, which is an unexpected thing to find above the Great Basin.
Not as of 2026. The canyon is closed to private vehicles for the duration of the water treatment plant rebuild, bicycles are allowed above Bonneville Boulevard on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays only, and the picnic sites are closed to reservation. It remains open to walk. The alternating odd and even day system between cars and bicycles that most guides describe is the historic arrangement rather than the current one, so check the city's own pages before you go.
It is a protected drinking water watershed, so the permanent rules do not relax between phases. Dogs must be leashed and are barred entirely above picnic site 16. There is no swimming or wading in the creek at any point. Bicycles are held to fifteen miles an hour. The road itself runs about eleven and a half miles from 4,695 feet to 6,052, with Rotary Park about four and a half miles up and dating from 1921.
Short and steep rather than long. It is about a mile round trip with roughly 374 feet of gain to a summit at 5,417 feet, from a trailhead at 1002 North Ensign Vista Drive at the top of the Avenues. There is no shade at all between the car park and the top, so take water and a hat, and the last hour before dusk is both the coolest and the best light. A small group climbed it on 26 July 1847, two days after the wagons arrived.
A former army post on the east bench, established on 26 October 1862 as Camp Douglas under Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and rebuilt in Red Butte sandstone between 1873 and 1876. It was listed on the National Register on 15 June 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark District on 15 May 1975, covering 25 acres. The post closed on 26 October 1991 and most of the ground went to the University of Utah. The Fort Douglas Military Museum operates out of former barracks and the parade ground is walkable.
A neighbourhood with its own grid, and its own rulebook.
The Avenues are a specific decision rather than a general one: shorter blocks, older houses, a review process on the outside of the building, and a climb home. Whether that trade works for you depends on the street, the year the house was built and what you intend to change. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who works this bench.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.