The Avenues, Salt Lake City
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40°46′30″N 111°52′30″W / 40.77500°N 111.87500°W The Avenues is an affluent
Layout and geography
The Avenues neighborhood lies on the "north east bench" of the
The north-south roads in the Avenues, which slope up the hillside, begin at Canyon Road and then are lettered from "A" to "U" Street and then "Virginia Street", from west to east. The fairly level east-west roads are numbered 1st to 18th Avenues heading northward from South Temple Street. The rigid grid system breaks down around 13th Avenue, as more recent developments farther north have taken a more serpentine bend. The 'major' streets used more for through-traffic, particularly for their connections at South Temple Street to city arteries, are B, E, I, and Virginia; the 'major' avenues are 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 11th, and 13th.
The Avenues lie just northeast of
The large Salt Lake City Cemetery occupies a significant portion of the eastern Avenues below 11th Avenue and abuts Lindsey Gardens (park). To the north of 11th Avenue is the 11th Avenue Park, west of Terrace Hills, a major north-south street leading into the upper Avenues.
The "lower Avenues" (below 11th or 13th) is a neighborhood of mostly older Victorian-era houses, at one time popular with younger homeowners looking for affordable "fixer-uppers". In recent years a large renovation boom has swept the area. As fixer-uppers are diminishing, it has become less affordable to the younger crowd. There are numerous apartment buildings dotting the lower Avenues also. The Avenues is also especially popular due to its proximity to downtown, the large and remote
History
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The Avenues was the first section of Salt Lake City to deviate from the original ten acre (40,000 m2) block grid pattern. Blocks were one half the dimension of the original grid, making them 2.5 acres (10,000 m2). Streets and sidewalks were narrower too, meaning that the Avenues' streets match poorly to the original blocks at the base of the neighborhood along South Temple Street. The first lots were surveyed in the early 1850s, but the Avenues' deviant platting violated the law. The territorial legislature had to pass a new survey ordinance for the Avenues, which they did in 1860.
Originally, all of the streets were named. North-south streets were named for trees, and east-west streets had names like "Fruit", "Garden", "Bluff", and "Wall" (for what are now 2nd through 5th avenue respectively). By 1885 the north-south streets gained their current alphabetical designations (A Street through V Street, although V was turned into Virginia Street). However, the east-west streets were still known as Streets. They were not retitled into Avenues until 1907. Up until that time, the area was known as "the dry bench" because it lacked water.
Until 1884, residents in the northeastern Avenues had to haul water for everyday use. Protests prompted the city to install
In spite of water problems, the Avenues proved to be an attractive residential neighborhood. In the southwest Avenues, artisans could live very close to downtown. In the east Avenues, "Butcherville" sprang up after slaughterhouses relocated to the east side in 1860.
Transportation was a major draw for settlement in the Avenues. The Salt Lake Railway Company offered mule and horse-drawn trolley rides in the Avenues by 1872, and the trolleys became electric in 1889. Salt Lake Rapid Transit Company incorporated in 1890 and the companies competed fiercely until merging in 1903. The trolley system expanded to other parts of the city as the Utah Light and Traction Company, but rail lines were denser in the Avenues than any other part of the city save downtown. The tracks were removed in the 1940s after National City Lines acquired (and dismantled) the trolley lines.
At the turn of the century, the neighborhood was a predominantly middle- and upper-middle class trolley suburb, home to many professionals. Developers, including future president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) Heber J. Grant, promoted Avenues home ownership.
The old Primary Children's Hospital was located in the avenues. With the rise of other, more affluent neighborhoods like
Avenues Historic District
Avenues Historic District | |
Salt Lake City, Utah | |
Area | 487 acres (197 ha) |
---|---|
Built | 1850 |
Architect | Multiple |
Architectural style | Mixed |
NRHP reference No. | 80003915[2] |
Added to NRHP | August 27, 1980 |
The Avenues Historic District is a 487-acre (197 ha)
The Barlow House, a brick Queen Anne style house in the district, has a twin that was built out in a rural area, the Amanda Conk Best House in Millcreek, Utah, also NRHP-listed.[4]
Also the Arthur O. Clark House at 1059 East 3rd Avenue, built in 1895, is a mirror copy of the Oscar M. Booth House, built in 1893 in Nephi, Utah by carpenter Oscar M. Booth.[5]
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Salt Lake City
- List of Salt Lake City neighborhoods
References
- Salt Lake Tribune. November 12, 1995. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Karl Haglund and Philip F. Notarianni (July 17, 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Avenues Historic District". National Park Service., with 470 pages including Utah State Historical Society sheets for many individual properties, and accompanying 23 photos from 1979
- ^ Korral Broschinsky (November 29, 2007). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Amanda Conk Best House" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 31, 2009. and accompanying photos
- ^ Tom Carter (October 1982). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Oscar M. Booth House". National Park Service. Retrieved May 6, 2019. With accompanying two photos from 1982
- Haglund, Karl T. & Notarianni, Philip F. (1980). The Avenues of Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society. ISBN 0-913738-31-X