The high ground Salt Lake City
The historic grid, and the bench above it
The Avenues and the east bench
The Avenues are the grid of short blocks on the hill just north of downtown Salt Lake City: blocks a quarter the usual size, streets numbered one way and lettered the other, and the oldest surviving houses in the city. It was the last part of the old grid to fill in, because water would not climb the hill until the 1880s. Here is how the grid works, what the historic overlay means if you own here, and what sits on the bench above it.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
The Avenues are the grid of short blocks on the hill just north of downtown Salt Lake City, laid out separately in the 1850s with blocks a quarter the size of the rest of the city, streets numbered one way and lettered the other. It was the last part of the old grid to fill in, because the water would not climb the hill until the 1880s, and most of what stands there now went up between the 1860s and the 1920s. Most of it is a local historic district, which means changing the outside of a house is a city question rather than a matter of taste. Above the Avenues the east bench carries the University of Utah, Fort Douglas, and the trailheads for Ensign Peak and City Creek. Here is how the grid works, what the overlay asks of an owner, and what to walk on the bench.
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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 legalize 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 neighborhood inside a driving city. The blocks are short, the houses are close to the sidewalk, 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.
Before you go looking for an address
- The lettered streets run north and south and the numbered avenues run east and west. Get that backward and you will be four blocks out in the wrong axis.
- The ground climbs the whole time. A flat looking six block walk on the map is a genuine hill, and it is steeper at the top of the lettered streets than at the bottom.
- Most of it is a historic district, which means what you may change on the outside of a house is a regulated question rather than a matter of taste.
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 legalized 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 hold roughly a hundred blocks of the oldest surviving houses in the city. They were the last part of the old grid to be built on, 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 neighborhood 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 streetcar the bench became buildable, 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 stories, and a good deal of the original iron and stone fencing still in place under mature street trees. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It was the last part of the old grid to fill in, 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 September 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 approved 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 bought into 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 takes questions at 801-535-7700, and the current district boundaries and application forms are on slc.gov.
Confirm the overlay against the actual parcel, not the neighborhood name. District boundaries do not follow the way people talk about neighborhoods, 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 neighborhood'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 strollers. That is not disrespect, it is how the neighborhood 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 child named Mary Wallace, buried by her father George Wallace, who was appointed the first sexton when the cemetery was permanently established in 1851. A twenty acre survey came first, in 1849, and 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. An online grave map lets you find a specific plot before you set off rather than after an hour of wandering.
The cemetery, in brief
The etiquette, since people ask
Use the roads rather than cutting between plots, keep dogs on a leash and clean 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 September 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 suspended. As of 2026 the canyon is closed to private vehicles for the water treatment plant rebuild. Foot and bicycle access is limited to weekends and holidays, up to picnic site 16, and the canyon is closed on weekdays. The ground past the treatment plant is off limits and the picnic sites are not taking reservations. It is still open to walk within those hours. If you have read about odd and even days anywhere, including in older guides, that is the historic rule rather than the current one, so check current access 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 bookstores
East of the Avenues the ground keeps rising, and six things worth knowing sit within about four miles of each other on that slope. Ensign Peak is the short foothill hike at the top of the Avenues. The University of Utah spreads across roughly 1,534 acres of upper bench, founded in 1850 as the University of Deseret and moved onto this ground in 1900. Research Park, founded in 1968 on about 300 acres, is the university's research campus and the way most people reach the foothill trailheads behind it. Fort Douglas sits between them, and is a large part of why the campus is where it is. Yalecrest, the historic district on the lower bench to the south, went on the National Register on 8 November 2007, and its houses run mostly from 1920 to 1940, heavy on Tudor and English Cottage. And two small crossroads carry the neighborhood's shops: 9th and 9th at 900 East 900 South, and 15th and 15th at 1500 East 1500 South, where the bookstore opened in 1977.
Distances up here are short and the climb is constant, so a map underestimates every walk on the bench by a noticeable margin.
Ensign Peak, 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 parking lot 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.
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.
Directions to Fort Douglas Directions to the University of Utah
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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, closed for renovation since 2019, and the founding block of the whole city.
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 legalize 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 around 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 neighborhood 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 neighborhood's largest open space in practice. Use the roads rather than cutting between plots, keep dogs leashed and clean 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 child named Mary Wallace, buried by her father George Wallace, who was appointed the first sexton when the cemetery was permanently established in 1851. A twenty acre survey came first, in 1849, and 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 water treatment plant rebuild, foot and bicycle access is limited to weekends and holidays up to picnic site 16, and the canyon is closed on weekdays. The ground past the treatment plant is off limits and the picnic sites are not taking reservations. It is still open to walk within those hours. The alternating odd and even day system between cars and bicycles that older guides describe is the historic arrangement rather than the current one, so check current access 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 parking lot 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 neighborhood 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.
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