The John Muir Branch Library was built in 1930, based upon a design by architect Henry Francis Withey in the Italian Renaissance style, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Vermont Square Branch Library is one of three extant Carnegie libraries in the Los Angeles Public Library system.

It began with a man and a suitcase of poetry. Hiram Sims, professor and poet, started this journey by loaning books of poems to his students at the Community Literature Initiative’s (CLI) Poetry Publishing Class. One of the requirements for the class was to read a poetry book a week.