The Vermont Square Branch: Origins, Pt. I

Beginning Years (1880s-1913)

In a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times, Jack Smith, brothers Arthur and Jevne Rohman (1983) wrote about how the land for the Vermont Square Branch was acquired in the late 1880s. They stated that their grandparents, Lewis Eugene and Ida S. Shepherd, sold their businesses and acquired the acreage which “is now bounded by Vernon Avenue, 48th Street, Vermont and Normandie Avenues.” Lewis, who was the president of the Southwest Land Company, “subdivided the acreage and gave “parcels of land to [Los Angeles] County for a park. The county thus chose the site of Vermont Square Park to build the first Carnegie Building in the city (pp. 1-2).

In 1910, Andrew Carnegie approached the Los Angeles Library Board of Directors and proposed that they build six Carnegie libraries in the city. He decided to donate $210,000 (roughly $2 million in modern currency) with only one provision: that a tenth of the fund and future upkeeps be provided by the city, which they agreed upon, according to the Los Angeles Times (“Library Contract Let,” 1912; "Library Assured," 1912). Hence, construction began in June of 1912, while Everett Perry was the City Librarian, and ended on February 12, 1913, as reported by the Los Angeles Times (“Library Contract Let,” 1912; “First Local Carnegie Library,” 1913).

A great collection of books and materials were ordered for the brand-new library by Miss Helen T. Kennedy, who was the supervisor of the branch libraries at the time. She ordered over 2,000 new books (non-fiction, religious, cultural, and children’s) and periodicals, though the library’s shelves were able to hold 16,000 volumes. Caroline M. Brittan, who was hired as the first librarian, and her assistant Veva Hart (along with two helpers from the Central Library) began setting up the new library. They, along with the rest of those in the library system, were no doubt anticipating the opening of the Vermont Square Branch (Los Angeles Public Library, 1920, pp. 1-3; Los Angeles Public Library, 1936, p. 1).