After a year-long battle, Marilyn Monroe’s Brentwood house has been saved from destruction.
On Wednesday, the L.A. Metropolis Council unanimously voted to designate the Spanish Colonial-style residence as a historic cultural monument, defending it from being razed by its present homeowners.
“We have an opportunity to do something today that should’ve been done 60 years ago. There’s no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,” Councilmember Traci Park mentioned in a speech earlier than the vote.
Park, who represents the council’s eleventh district, the place the property is situated, added that she’s planning to introduce a movement to judge tour bus restrictions in Brentwood after neighbors complained about undesirable site visitors across the property. She additionally floated the thought of transferring the house to a spot the place the general public might extra simply entry it.
“To lose this piece of history, the only home that Monroe ever owned, would be a devastating blow for historic preservation and for a city where less than 3% of historic designations are associated with women’s heritage,” Park mentioned.
The battle over the house on fifth Helena Drive has been brewing since final summer time, evolving right into a higher dialogue of what precisely is value defending in Southern California — a area chock-full of architectural marvels and Outdated Hollywood haunts swirling with celeb legend and gossip.
Monroe followers claimed the residence is an indelible piece of Hollywood historical past; the actress purchased the home for $75,000 in 1962 and died there of an obvious overdose six months later, making it the final house she ever occupied.
The owners claimed the home has been reworked so many instances over time that it bears no resemblance to its former self. Additionally they mentioned it has turn out to be a neighborhood nuisance as vacationers and followers flock to take footage exterior the property.
The saga began when heiress Brinah Milstein and her husband, actuality TV producer Roy Financial institution, purchased the property for $8.35 million and instantly laid out plans to demolish it. They owned the property subsequent door and needed to increase their property.
An aerial view reveals the Brentwood home the place actress Marilyn Monroe died.
(Mel Bouzad / Getty Photos)
Within the months after, the landmark utility slowly superior, first receiving approval from the Cultural Heritage Fee after which from the Planning and Land Use Administration Committee.
Within the meantime, Milstein and Financial institution have been barred from demolishing the house. Milstein addressed the Cultural Heritage Fee instantly in January in an effort to sway its determination.
“We have watched it go unmaintained and unkept. We purchased the property because it is within feet of ours. And it is not a historic cultural monument,” she mentioned on the time.
In an try and halt the landmark designation course of, they sued the town in Might, claiming that officers acted unconstitutionally of their efforts to designate the house as a landmark and accusing them of “backdoor machinations” in making an attempt to protect a home that doesn’t meet the standards for standing as a historic cultural monument.
“There is not a single piece of the house that includes any physical evidence that Ms. Monroe ever spent a day at the house, not a piece of furniture, not a paint chip, not a carpet, nothing,” the lawsuit says.
A choose denied the declare in June, calling the swimsuit an “ill-disguised motion to win so that they can demolish the home and eliminate the historic cultural monument issue,” in response to ABC 7.
The Metropolis Council vote was initially set for June 12, however Park requested a postponement, citing the latest courtroom determination and pending litigation, in addition to ongoing discussions between the town legal professional’s workplace and the property homeowners.
