🏢 Los Angeles Public Library — Los Angeles, California

Vermont Square Branch Library

Opened in 1913, Vermont Square is the oldest branch in the Los Angeles Public Library system and its earliest surviving Carnegie library.

📖 About Vermont Square Branch Library

Vermont Square Branch Library opened on March 1, 1913, making it the oldest branch in the Los Angeles Public Library system and one of only three Carnegie-funded branches still standing in the city. Designed by architects Sumner Hunt and Silas Reese Burns, the building was built with a share of the $210,000 Carnegie grant that financed six early LAPL branches. Its Italian Renaissance–inspired design features a broad red tile roof with deep overhanging eaves, a cream-colored glazed-brick and white-tile exterior, and tall windows grouped in bands, set within a symmetrical three-part façade accented by terra-cotta ornament. Recognized as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 264 in 1983 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, the branch closed in 1990 over unreinforced-masonry seismic concerns and reopened in 1996 after an extensive restoration. That renovation added artist Nobuho Nagasawa's playful installations, including a set of preschool stools that spell out "IMAGINATION."

⭐ What makes this branch special

• The oldest branch library in the LAPL system, opened March 1, 1913
• One of only three surviving Carnegie-funded branches in Los Angeles
• Italian Renaissance design by Sumner Hunt and Silas Burns with a red tile roof and glazed-brick façade
• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 264 and on the National Register of Historic Places

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