Some streets are so iconic they have songs written about them (Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee – we’re looking at you). Others are so lovely they form the main (or Main Street) attraction in their towns, while there are also those that usually draw photographers, Instagrammers and architecture fans just to catch a glimpse. While we can't travel and see them in person right now, take an armchair tour of some of the most beautiful streets across the US.
What’s more Memphis than Beale Street? This musical stretch is dazzling, with neon as far as the eye can see. Founded in 1841, the city centre street became a hub of the blues music scene in the 1920s and its bars and clubs are still known for toe-tapping, head-bobbing live music. It’s striking in the daytime but is at its vibrant best as the sun goes down and the neon really pops.
The small town of St. Helena has been dubbed Napa Valley’s Main Street thanks to its upscale yet relaxed vibe. It's really just a strip, but a gorgeous one with treasure-filled boutiques, cosy bistros, bakeries and bookstores. Landmark buildings include the Culinary Institute of America, occupying a former winery, and the 19th-century Richie Block building. The stretch is also nestled among some of the area’s most prestigious vineyards.
The heart of a former red light district doesn’t exactly sound like a classic beauty, though this higgledy-piggledy waterfront stretch defies all expectations. Creek Street, a boardwalk built on wooden pilings at the edge of Ketchikan Creek, was born of necessity as carving into the surrounding rocky slopes was near impossible. Its colourful buildings, many of which were home to brothels and Prohibition-era speakeasies, now contain seafood restaurants, quirky shops and tiny museums.
Wineries feature heavily along Walla Walla’s delightful Main Street, which of course contributes to its charms. The architecture is also noteworthy along this downtown stretch, which forms the heart of the Washington wine region and is surrounded by vineyards and farms. Tasting rooms, boutiques, bakeries, jewellers and even soap sellers nestle inside renovated Victorian and Beaux Arts buildings, giving the street a historic, vibrant character.
This street stretches for around 6.5 miles (10.5km) but it’s the half-mile (0.8km) section that runs through downtown Santa Fe that’s really beguiling. It’s packed with art studios and artisan craft shops, while the street is itself an open-air gallery dotted with striking sculptures. Traditional adobe (dried mud brick) buildings, lots of greenery and bursts of bold colour complete the scene.
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Bang in the middle of Denver, Larimer Street is the twinkly heart of the Mile High City and is also its most historic stretch. It’s actually a few months older than the city itself, with its foundations beginning in 1858 – the same year as Denver officially became a city. Named for General Larimer, who built Denver’s first residence, its most eye-catching part today is the pedestrianised block that makes up Larimer Square, roofed by strings of lights and home to some of the best restaurants and bars.
Some streets are notable for their historic homes, others for their colourful façades or maybe their impeccable landscaping. Washington Street, in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighbourhood, has plenty of curb appeal thanks to its tall, red-brick buildings and cobbled heart. But it’s the view that has made this one of the city’s most photographed streets, because those buildings perfectly frame the blue steel arches of the Manhattan Bridge.
Curving its way for several blocks in LA’s plush Beverly Hills neighbourhood, Rodeo Drive is as upscale as shopping streets get. In fact it’s a toss up whether there are more designer stores or palm trees. Both are prevalent and add to the sleek, chic charms of the stretch. It became a byword for Hollywood glamour in the 1960s, when Fred Hayman – also known as “Mr Rodeo Drive” – opened Giorgio Beverly Hills, with others top names following. The buildings themselves are as beautiful as the designer gear they contain.
Lombard Street is famous for a wonderfully specific reason: it’s the most crooked street in the world, with eight hairpin turns squished into a quarter-mile (400m) section. It’s such a beloved attraction that cars often queue to wind their way (at no more than 5mph/8km ph) around the steep street, which was completed in 1922 in a bid to calm traffic. It has even featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s dizzying film Vertigo. Verdant, bloom-filled plants add extra prettiness.
With its soft, tonal colour palette, red-brick pavements and abundance of trees and potted plants, Swann Street is the kind of dreamy spot that attracts people who just want to stroll and stare. The Italianate houses, painted in warm rusty-red, grey, white and brown shades, date from the 19th century and are right on the edge of the Greater U Street Historic District.
Key West’s main nightlife strip is as wonderful to look at as it is wonderfully weird to stroll along. The city, at the end of the Florida Keys archipelago, is packed with colourful and unique architecture from sloped-roof “eyebrow” houses to “Conch Victorians” with latticed balconies. Many of these can be seen along this main drag, along with gorgeous galleries and open-sided bars. Free-range chickens, believed to descend from cock-fighting birds and now protected, add to the street’s quirky charms.
Savannah’s Historic District is as abundant in Southern charm and beauty as it is in Spanish moss – that is to say, it has a lot of both. So it’s tricky to pick out just one street. There’s Jones Street, with its high-stooped Greek Revival homes, and countless cute cobblestone alleyways. River Street, though, would be beautiful even if it didn’t run along the Savannah River. Bright awnings pop out from 19th-century former warehouses that now house antiques shops, bars and some of the city’s best restaurants.
Charleston is another Southern charmer with no shortage of eye-catching thoroughfares. East Bay Street stands out in this line-up of beauties, largely thanks to the stretch of boldly-coloured façades that earned it the nickname "Rainbow Row". The 18th and 19th-century homes were given a makeover by local judge Lionel Legge and his wife Dorothy Porcher Legge in the 1930s. They purchased the row and painted them in gorgeous shades of spearmint, lilac and sugared-almond pink.
Sometimes called “Magic Mile”, Fredericksburg’s Main Street is a dream. The German-settled town, in the heart of Texas Hill Country, is surrounded by wineries and rivals the vineyards when it comes to aesthetics. The broad street is flanked by 19th and 20th-century buildings housing cute boutiques, galleries and antiques stores that are also restaurants, cafés and bars. At its heart is Marktplatz, with a museum surrounded by grounds.
This quaint yet vibrant town in the Shenandoah Valley is sort of like one main street carved up and criss-crossed together to make a charming whole. Staunton, the birthplace of president Woodrow Wilson, has actually won an award for its designated "Main Street community" – a programme to rehabilitate the town's historic downtown. The principal thoroughfare is called Beverley Street (pictured where it crosses with Augusta). Here, many of the town’s restaurants, shops, museums and bars are clustered in eclectic 18th and 19th-century buildings.
Saloons, breweries, restaurants, boutiques… Park City’s Main Street doesn’t have a wasted inch. Everything is worth more than a second look and everything is wonderfully pretty. The stretch slices right through the popular ski resort’s downtown. The buildings, many of which date from the city’s days as a silver-mining hub in the mid-19th century, look particularly lovely with the backdrop of mountains, whether they’re blanketed in winter white or summer greenery.
Affluent Brooklyn Heights is known for its grand, covetable brownstones and Grace Court Alley is one of its most picturesque pockets. The dead-end street was once home to horse stables and is now among the city’s most enviable addresses, with rows of beautiful homes leading to an elegant carriage house at the end. It's named for the nearby 1849 Gothic Revival Grace Episcopal Church and has kept many original details including broad stable doors and hooks for hefting hay.
Close to Austin’s beautiful Lady Bird Lake, Rainey Street is a designated historic district and one of the most unusual stretches in an already unusual city. Its main point of difference is that it’s pretty much all bungalows, which have been converted into bars and restaurants with twinkly-lit courtyards and food-truck hubs. Its laid-back atmosphere and regular live music performances usually draw people looking for a low-key alternative to other nightlife stretches.
Picture a classic Wild West Main Street and something that looks a little like Deadwood’s main stretch may well spring to mind. The town sprung out of the Black Hills Gold Rush in the 19th century and has maintained a wonderfully authentic sense of its past, with original storefronts housing saloons and casinos. Infamous past residents of the town, whose Main Street is even more photogenic thanks to the surrounding Black Hills National Forest, include frontierswoman Calamity Jane and gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok.
Shiny new buildings can be just as charming as historic ones. At least, that’s the case with Rosemary Beach, a small community in an idyllic setting on Florida’s Gulf Coast between Panama City Beach and Destin. Aside from the blazingly white sandy beaches, the town – planned in the mid-1990s – has some gloriously designed buildings including the elegant Pearl Hotel (pictured). The architecture is all Southern charm, with colourful West Indies-style homes and chic structures that wouldn’t look out of place in Savannah, Georgia.
Distinctive colourful shutters and doors mark out this teeny-tiny Philadelphia street as something special. They pop out in shades of scarlet, olive, ochre and sky blue, lining either side of a narrow alleyway with a strip of cobblestones along its length. Founded in the mid-18th century, Elfreth’s Alley is the oldest continuously-inhabited residential street in the US. The 32 houses were once artisan hubs that belonged to tailors, cobblers, silversmiths and furniture makers, and are now a mix of homes and museums.
Pretty much every inch of Greenwich Village in Manhattan is enviably gorgeous. The neighbourhood is known for its charming, tree-lined streets but Waverly Place is particularly lovely. Stretching alongside Washington Square Park, the heart of the district, its mix of bright painted and plain brownstone townhouses is delightful. The buildings have seen some colourful history too, from being home to a speakeasy where Fats Waller played piano to a former clinic where Edgar Allan Poe was treated for a cold.
The main stretch that runs through Carmel-by-the-Sea, on California’s Central Coast, is not only attractive because it runs towards the Pacific Ocean. It also manages to be broad and beautiful, chic and charming, cute and convenient all at once. Laid out like a Parisian boulevard, its tucked-away squares and 1920s “fairy-tale” cottages – built by Hugh Comstock for his wife’s handmade dolls – give it a surprisingly intimate feel. The pale-sand beach, famous for spectacular sunsets, at its end is also rather lovely.
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Several streets dance together in this Victorian spa town, which is on the National Register of Historic Places as a whole. Its Main Street carves through the hilly terrain before cleaving off to form Center and Spring Streets. The latter, which rises steeply upwards, is particularly attractive thanks to its dramatic inline and historic buildings such as the limestone Basin Park Hotel (pictured). Throw in the Ozark Mountains backdrop and the picture-perfect setting is complete.
Nantucket may be better known for its seaside location and whaling history but it also has one of the country’s prettiest and best-preserved Main Streets. The tiny island, off Cape Cod, is rich in 17th, 18th and 19th-century architecture and many of the most notable buildings line Main Street. Greek Revival mansions and lean-to homes overlook the tree-studded sidewalks and cobblestoned road.
What happens on Bourbon Street, the city’s infamous nightlife (and day-drinking) hub, isn’t always a pretty sight. But the architecture is, from buildings with lacy balconies to beautifully bold Creole and shotgun houses, whose colour combinations shouldn’t work but just do. The street cuts through the heart of the historic French Quarter, with many buildings dating back to the 18th century. Neon lights and Mardi Gras beads, usually strewn on street signs and balconies, add even more colour.
Maine’s state capital is rich in history and historical buildings, though no area is so atmospheric and steeped in the past as the Old Port. Cobbled lanes weave close to the waterfront, while longer thoroughfares are lined with 19th-century brick buildings – many erected following the 1866 fire that devastated the city – that now house independent shops, cafés and bars. Exchange Street, whose warm-hued stone buildings have eye-catching arched doorways and windows, is especially charming.
It’s hard to think of a more iconic – and more Miami – street than Ocean Drive, which basks in its sunny, South Beach spot. It only stretches for around 1.5 miles (2.2km) yet it crams in the prettiness. Lined with Art Deco hotels and theatres, and dotted with slinky palm trees, it’s a veritable catwalk of architecture. The historical buildings the area is famous for dazzle in bright-white and highlighter shades by day and glow in neon after dark.
Streets don’t come much more charming than Acorn Street, the quintessentially New England avenue in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighbourhood. It’s thought to be one of the country’s most frequently snapped streets and it is pretty photogenic, from the cobblestones to its coordinated doorframes and window shutters. The 19th-century brick buildings are some of the city’s most exclusive – and expensive – private residences.
The world’s ugliest street, wherever that may be, would be elevated to supermodel status with the addition of the Painted Ladies. These pastel-hued Victorian houses, in shades from cornflower blue to butter and pink to pistachio, are so gorgeous that their home, on Steiner and Hayes Streets, is known as “postcard row”. The rest of this steep San Francisco street isn’t at all ugly, though. With a grassy park, views over the city and movie star homes (including the house used in Robin Williams movie Mrs. Doubtfire), it’s the epitome of picturesque.