The Avenues: Salt Lake's Original Neighborhood

North of downtown, climbing the hillside below the Capitol. The Avenues is Salt Lake's oldest residential neighborhood — row houses with gabled roofs and porch chairs, streets named by letters and numbers like the rest of the city but somehow feeling less regimented.

The King's English Bookshop is a stubbornly beloved independent bookstore. Bell on the door, air that smells like old paper and new ideas. The Salt Lake City Public Library main branch nearby has a copper roof and interior terraces and reading nooks — the building itself is worth visiting even if you don't need a book.

The pace here is deliberately slower. Chalky scent of rain on brick, dog walkers, the Wasatch visible at the end of every east-running street. Start near Main Street around 7:15 AM for the quietest version.