Vermont Square, Los Angeles, CA

The Vermont Square Branch Library opened in 1913 as the first library building the City of Los Angeles ever built, and it still lends books from a cream brick, red tile roofed building inside Vermont Square Park on West 48th Street. The neighborhood around it, in South Los Angeles between Martin Luther King Jr. That early start shows in the houses. Single-family bungalows and Craftsman homes, many from the 1910s, fill the side streets, with some midcentury houses mixed in. Apartments and condos line the bigger roads, and larger Craftsman lots often carry a back unit. Vermont Square Park is the neighborhood's front yard, with barbecue pits and picnic tables, basketball courts and community garden plots around the library. Julian C. Dixon Park adds another playground and court. Exposition Park is just north across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, with its rose garden, museums and the Coliseum a short walk or bike ride away. Western and Vermont avenues carry most of the food. Sonsonate Grill on South Western serves Salvadoran pupusas and plates, and Vermont Avenue adds more Salvadoran and Central American spots like Ciudad Arce Restaurant y Pupuseria and Pelican, a Belizean kitchen near 43rd Street. Small bakeries such as Guatepan on Vernon Avenue keep Guatemalan bread on hand. Daily errands happen at family-run markets along Western and Hoover, plus the larger grocery stores on Vermont. The Metro E Line stops at Exposition Park, the Harbor Freeway runs along the east side, and Western Avenue works as a surface route when the 110 backs up. The tradeoff is density on the main streets, where traffic, bus stops and busy storefronts run nearly nonstop. Step onto 48th Street, though, and Vermont Square slows down, with neighbors checking out books and tending garden beds under the old library's broad eaves.