  We report on a thermoelectric investigation of the stripe and superconducting
phases of the cuprate La$_{2-x}$Ba$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ near the $x=1/8$ doping known
to host stable stripes. We use the doping and magnetic field dependence of
field-symmetric Nernst effect features to delineate the phenomenology of these
phases. Our measurements are consistent with prior reports of time-reversal
symmetry breaking signatures above the superconducting $T_{{\rm c}}$, and
crucially detect a sharp, robust, field-invariant peak at the stripe charge
order temperature, $T_{{\rm {\scriptscriptstyle CO}}}$. Our observations
suggest the onset of a nontrivial charge ordered phase at $T_{{\rm
{\scriptscriptstyle CO}}}$, and the subsequent presence of spontaneously
generated vortices over a broad temperature range before the emergence of bulk
superconductivity in LBCO.
