The Vermont Square Branch was built on the corner of 48th Street and Budlong Avenue in South- Central Los Angeles. During the library’s early years, the area was filled with nice, little affordable bungalows that housed young couples with growing families. Baby buggies could always be found parked in the main entrance of the library. The neighborhood schools were crowded and there were no playgrounds in the district; children had few distractions then (Los Angeles Public Library, 1936, p. 5).
There were already five public elementary schools in the area when the library was built: Normandie, Fifty-Second Street, Menlo, Western Avenue and Santa Barbara Schools. Not too long after, junior high schools were established; hence, the John Muir and James A. Foshay Junior High Schools were constructed. The high school that was already established was Manual Arts High School, which later became in connection with the library. The instruction of school classes were established along with clubs for students, which prospered “until they had served their purpose” (Los Angeles Public Library, 1936, p. 5).Whenever children’s work became a tax burden on a library and its collection, another branch would open up in the area. In addition to the Vermont Branch, the Angeles Mesa and John Muir Branches were built and grew; they thus relieved the pressure off of the Vermont Branch’s children’s room (p. 5).
In the 1930s, many other libraries began to be built in Los Angeles. The Henry Thoreau Branch was opened across the street from the Santa Barbara School and later took over service of Foshay High School. Meanwhile, the John Muir Branch had taken over John Muir Junior High School. Hence, with these factors and the community’s gradual changes, the Vermont Branch was “reduced from the head of the branch list in children’s circulation” (Los Angeles Public Library, 1936, pp. 5-6). They were also convinced that the library’s future solely depended upon their providing services to adults. After all, the community’s children had grown up and the neighborhood was made up of either older adults or foreigners. Thus, by the late 1930s, the children’s room was no longer filled and their schools had “lost in enrollment.” The community’s change, therefore, was seen as a negative to the library branch (p. 6).
During the 1940s, the Exposition Park area, where the Vermont Square and Junipero library branches are located, had the smallest population increase in the city. From 1940 to 1946, the area increased only by 1.08%. From 1946 to 1948, that percentage increased to 4.2%. In 1940, the population, according to the U.S. Census was 76, 542; in 1946 it was 76,542. According to the Los Angeles City Census, the area’s population in 1946 was 77,355. In 1948, the Regional Planning Commission estimated that the area’s population was 78,752. While the area had slow growth, other surrounding areas were experiencing population booms, such as Reseda- which had experienced a 260.5% increase between 1940 and 1948 (Los Angeles Public Library, 1949, p. 1).
By the end of the 1940s, the Exposition Park area had lost much of its “community feeling” (Los Angeles Public Library, 1949, p. 1). The area was now an older middle class neighborhood with mainly clerics and salespeople as residents. The population of West Vermont Avenue saw no change; however, East Vermont Avenue had become a multicultural working-class neighborhood with a large elderly population. Children only made up 8.3% of the population and the youth population had been rapidly declining. The education level of the area’s residents was slightly above the city’s average, with 10.5 being the average number of school years completed by adults over age 24 (the city’s was 9.88) (p. 1).
A survey completed by the Los Angeles Public Library in 1948 revealed that residents in the Exposition area utilized the Vermont Square Branch the most out of all the local area branches (i.e. John Muir Branch). It showed that the 76% of adult and 92% of child patrons lived within the Exposition area; 24% adult and 8% child patrons lived in either South Vermont or outside the Southwest area. However, since there were no barriers in the region except on the city’s western side, library cardholders who lived outside the Southwest region could use any library they pleased (Los Angeles Public Library, 1949, pp. 1-2).
From 1949 to 1953, the Exposition Park area underwent vast changes. The area’s borders grew and were now bounded by Main Street, Arlington Avenue, Exposition Boulevard and Slauson Avenue. The playgrounds, bowling greens, and tennis courts in Exposition Park were eradicated and the park was redeveloped. Many homes and businesses were torn down to create off-street parking facilities for the new Coliseum, which was to be opened in 1960. The Southwest Health Center moved from an aging building on Vernon Avenue to new facilities on 38th Street (Los Angeles Public Library, 1959, p. 1). Also, plans to remodel the outmoded University Police Stations were being drawn up. Old buildings had been or were in the process of being replaced, new schools such as St. Cecilia’s were built, and the brand-new Harbor Freeway cut through the community. Many homes were razed to make way for apartment buildings. Bus lines replaced street car lines, many existing roads have been widened, and new roads were built. Therefore, the Exposition area was undergoing modernization in the late 1940s/1950s (Los Angeles Public Library, 1959, pp. 1-2).
By 1950, the community’s population was cut by nearly 5,000 and population growth was still slow. However, by the middle of the decade, Exposition Park became the 2nd fastest growing community in Los Angeles after the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles Public Library, 1959, pp. 1-2). Schools in the area were becoming so over-populated that many were operating on half-day schedules. Exposition Park also began changing from an upper middle-class Caucasian to an ethnic working-class community. Younger families were on the rise again; however, these families had low economic and educational levels (pp. 1-2). Thus, these changes that had occurred paved the way for the modern Exposition Park community we see today.
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