Marilyn Monroe house declared cultural landmark, saved from demolition

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 house owners.

“We’ve got a possibility to do one thing at this time that ought to’ve been accomplished 60 years in the past. There’s no different individual or place within the metropolis of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood house,” Councilmember Traci Park mentioned in a speech earlier than the vote.

Park, who represents the council’s eleventh district, the place the property is positioned, 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 shifting the house to a spot the place the general public might extra simply entry it.

“To lose this piece of historical past, the one house that Monroe ever owned, could be a devastating blow for historic preservation and for a metropolis the place lower than 3% of historic designations are related to girls’s heritage,” Park mentioned.

The battle over the house on fifth Helena Drive has been brewing since final summer season, evolving right into a larger dialogue of what precisely is value defending in Southern California — a area chock-full of architectural marvels and Outdated Hollywood haunts swirling with movie star legend and gossip.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 householders claimed the home has been reworked so many occasions over time that it bears no resemblance to its former self. In addition they mentioned it has grow to be a neighborhood nuisance as vacationers and followers flock to take photos outdoors 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 wished to broaden their property.

The couple obtained a allow however quickly bumped into opposition, as historians, Angelenos and Monroe followers jumped in to protest the deliberate demolition. Councilmember Park mentioned she obtained lots of of calls and emails urging her to take motion.

The following day, she held a information convention, whereas sporting purple lipstick and quick blond hair in a nod to Monroe, giving an impassioned speech urging the Metropolis Council to designate the house as a landmark.

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 had been barred from demolishing the house. Milstein addressed the Cultural Heritage Fee instantly in January in an effort to sway its determination.

“We’ve got watched it go unmaintained and unkept. We bought the property as a result of it’s inside ft of ours. And it isn’t a historic cultural monument,” she mentioned on the time.

In an try and halt the landmark designation course of, they sued 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 factors for standing as a historic cultural monument.

“There’s not a single piece of the home that features any bodily proof that Ms. Monroe ever spent a day on the home, not a bit of furnishings, not a paint chip, not a carpet, nothing,” the lawsuit says.

A decide denied the declare in June, calling the go well with an “ill-disguised movement to win in order that they’ll demolish the house and remove the historic cultural monument problem,” in response to ABC 7.

The Metropolis Council vote was initially set for June 12, however Park requested a postponement, citing the current court docket determination and pending litigation, in addition to ongoing discussions between town legal professional’s workplace and the property house owners.