Euclid Avenue

A 200-foot-wide tree-lined boulevard that runs eight miles from the foothills down to the downtown rail line, Euclid Avenue is the defining feature of Ontario's original 1880s street grid. The double row of palms and eucalyptus along the central median, with grand turn-of-the-century houses and civic buildings flanking it, makes for the most pleasant walk in the city.

The downtown stretch between Holt Boulevard and the railroad has been restored as a low-rise commercial district, with the Frankish Building, Ontario Museum of History and Art, and several historic banks lining the avenue. Free street parking along the median.

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A story
Euclid Avenue was laid out in 1882 by Canadian-born engineer George Chaffey, who modelled it on the great Parisian boulevards and lined the median with 7,000 grevillea and pepper trees. He also built a mule-drawn streetcar in the median that, after climbing the slope from downtown to Upland, would return downhill with the mule riding on a trailer behind the car — a tourist novelty that ran for 13 years.

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