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 Memory Grove/City Creek Canyon recreation area to the west, the University of Utah to the east/southeast, and the airport, as well as low traffic and minimal commercial development. The more significant non-residential developments are a supermarket with a few small shops and a State Liquor Store comprising the block between E and F Streets and 5th and 6th Avenue, a few small businesses throughout the Avenues, and the LDS Hospital complex comprising the blocks of 7th Avenue to 9th Avenue between C and D Streets, with additional doctors offices between 9th and 10th Avenue between C and D Streets. Shriners Hospital for Children is located on the east side of Virginia Street bordering 11th Avenue. Popperton Park is at the northeast corner of Virginia and 11th Avenue. A small city library branch is at 9th Avenue and F Street. There are several schools and churches within the Avenues, as well as a large funeral home and mausoleum on the north side of 11th Avenue just west of Virginia street. The Ronald McDonald House is on the north side of South Temple between M and N Streets, where it will soon expand with buildings along the entire block facing South Temple. Other office buildings are found on the north side of South Temple between A Street and Virginia. History 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