The Avenues
About the area
The Avenues is Salt Lake City's most architecturally storied residential neighborhood and the city's largest designated historic district, covering approximately 100 blocks immediately northeast of downtown. Platted in the 1850s and substantially built out by 1930, it broke with Salt Lake's standard ten-acre block system—halving the blocks and narrowing streets to create a human-scaled grid still intact today. The housing stock runs from Victorian cottages and Queen Anne homes to Craftsman bungalows, Tudor Revival, and Prairie-style houses, with condos and rowhouses adding an entry tier in the Lower Avenues. Lower Avenues condos and entry single-family homes start in the mid-$400s; mid-Avenues homes broadly span $600,000 to $1 million; Upper Avenues larger properties reach $1 million to $2 million and beyond.
The Avenues
Living in The Avenues
Amenities & Lifestyle
The Avenues commercial culture centers on the 9th & 9th district—a 10-minute walk from Lower Avenues addresses—with Publik Coffee Roasters, Coffee Garden, Este Pizza, and a dense strip of independent restaurants and boutiques. City Creek Canyon opens at the neighborhood's western edge: a paved road into the canyon that closes to cars on alternating summer days, giving residents a near-private trail. Memory Grove Park, tucked at the foot of City Creek, offers a quiet green corridor with war memorials and picnic space. Ensign Peak Nature Park—the 0.9-mile hike to the promontory Brigham Young first climbed in 1847—is accessible from the upper neighborhood. The Saturday Farmers Market at Pioneer Park is a 10-minute drive downtown. Trolley Square and the Gallivan Center amphitheater are within 15 minutes. Bonneville Golf Course, an 18-hole SLC municipal course, is approximately 10 minutes east.
Getting Around
The Avenues' position puts downtown Salt Lake City at 5 to 10 minutes by car—1 to 2 miles. Salt Lake City International Airport is 15 to 20 minutes west. University of Utah and U of U Health are 10 to 12 minutes southeast. I-80 is accessible south via 900 South for Parleys Canyon and Park City in roughly 35 to 40 minutes. Multiple UTA bus routes serve 200 South and North Temple; TRAX is a short drive or 15-minute walk to the lower portions. The Avenues is one of the few SLC neighborhoods where daily errands—coffee, grocery, restaurants—are genuinely walkable.
Historic District Character—The Grid That Broke the Mold
The Avenues earned its place on the National Register of Historic Places as Salt Lake City's largest residential historic district. Its street system—numbered Avenues running east-west, lettered streets (A through T and beyond) running north-south—was the city's first departure from the original ten-acre block, creating the narrower, more intimate streetscape that defines the neighborhood today. Victorian, Queen Anne, Craftsman, Prairie, Tudor Revival, and Mediterranean Revival styles sometimes share a single block face. The Avenues Historic District encompasses approximately 100 blocks; the Historic Preservation Office and the Avenues Community Council maintain oversight of contributing structures. Exterior modifications require consultation with SLC Historic Preservation.
Schools
The Avenues is served by the Salt Lake City School District. Assigned schools include Ensign Elementary (Capitol Hill and lower Avenues edge) and Wasatch Elementary (mid-to-upper Avenues), with West High School as the primary assigned high school for the neighborhood. Confirm the exact attendance boundary for any address using the district locator at slcschools.org.
The Avenues Sub-Areas
- Lower Avenues— roughly 1st through 5th Avenues; higher density, condos, rowhouses, and walking distance to downtown.
- Upper Avenues— 6th Avenue and above; larger lots, more single-family character, direct Bonneville Shoreline Trail access from 11th Avenue trailheads.
The Avenues
The Avenues Real Estate FAQ
The Avenues spans a wide price range. Condos and smaller single-family homes in the Lower Avenues start in the mid-$400,000s, mid-Avenues homes on the tree-lined blocks broadly run $600,000 to $1 million, and larger Upper Avenues properties reach $1 million to $2 million and above. Verify current pricing against live MLS data before making any decisions.
The signature stock is late-Victorian and early-20th-century architecture—Queen Anne cottages, Craftsman bungalows, Tudor Revival, Prairie, and Mediterranean Revival homes on the numbered-and-lettered grid. The Lower Avenues adds condos, rowhouses, and occasional infill townhomes. New construction is limited; the historic overlay discourages incompatible infill.
The Avenues sits 1 to 2 miles northeast of downtown Salt Lake City, about 5 to 10 minutes by car. Salt Lake City International Airport is roughly 15 to 20 minutes west. Multiple UTA bus routes connect the lower portion of the neighborhood to the downtown TRAX hub.
Both are historic, walkable neighborhoods directly adjacent to downtown Salt Lake City. The Avenues is the larger district, with a longer span of architecture, more sub-areas, and direct trail access via City Creek Canyon and the Bonneville Shoreline. Capitol Hill is a smaller, older enclave on the promontory north of downtown, centered on the Utah State Capitol and the Marmalade District's fruit-tree streets, with generally more accessible price points.
