In February 1937, George Pepperdine founded Pepperdine University as a Christian liberal arts college in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of Los Angeles. On September 21, 1937, 167 new students from 22 different states and two other countries entered classes on a newly built campus on 34 acres at West 79th Street and South Vermont Avenue.
Pepperdine University moved to a new and larger campus in Malibu, Californiain September 1972. The old campus was sold to the Crenshaw Christian Center, whose minister, Frederick K.C. Price, then oversaw construction of the "FaithDome", a $9-million geodesic structure with seating for 10,145 worshipers. When it opened in 1989, it was the largest church in the nation.
Economic redevelopment
In the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the 165-acre Vermont/Manchester Recovery Redevelopment Project was adopted by CRA/LA on May 14, 1996. The project area included Vermont Avenue between 79th and 89th streets.
Vermont Shopping Center
In 1999, "Designs for Development Guidelines" were adopted for a proposed 100,000-square foot mixed used shopping center. The "Vermont Entertainment Village" at Vermont and Manchester Avenues officially broke ground in April 2015. A year later, development had not progressed until 2017 when the plan was converted into a boarding school and transit hub.
Population
A total of 20,616 people lived in Vermont Knolls's 1.14 square miles, according to the 2000 U.S. census—averaging 18,057 people per square mile, among the highest population densities in the city as a whole. Population was estimated at 21,568 in 2008. The median age was 24, considered young when compared to the city as a whole. The percentages of residents aged birth to 18 were among the county's highest. Within the neighborhood, Latinos made up 54.5% of the population, with black people at 42.6%, Asian 1.2%, white 1% and other 0.7%. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common places of birth for the 33.2% of the residents who were born abroad, an average percentage of foreign-born when compared with the city or county as a whole. The $27,730 median household income in 2008 dollars was considered low for the city and county. The percentage of households earning $20,000 or less was high, compared to the county at large. The average household size of 3.3 people was high for the city. Renters occupied 72.1% of the housing units, and homeowners occupied the rest. In 2000 there were 1,533 families headed by single parents, or 33.7%, the second-highest rate for any city neighborhood, after Watts. Vermont Knolls's residents with a four-year bachelor's degree amounted to 5.4% of the population aged 25 and older in 2000, which was a low figure when compared with the city and the county at large; the percentage of those residents with less than a high school diploma was high for the county.
Government
is in Vermont Knolls.
Education
There are three schools within the Vermont Knolls boundaries.
Raymond Avenue Elementary School, LAUSD, 7511 Raymond Avenue