UPDATE
Jun 27, 2024 1:01 AM CDT
Marilyn Monroe's Los Angeles home, where the glamour icon spent her final moments in 1962 before dying of a drug overdose, has been saved from demolition. The city council voted unanimously Wednesday to designate it as a historic cultural monument, CBS News reports. "We have an opportunity to do something today that should've been done 60 years ago," a councilwoman said at the meeting. "There is no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home." The councilwoman said she is working on a plan with the property owners, who want to raze the home, to instead have it moved elsewhere, but a lawyer for the couple disputes that account, KTLA reports. The couple's lawsuit against the city has not yet been resolved.
May 8, 2024 12:26 PM CDT
The owners of the Los Angeles home in which Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe died still very much want to tear it down. Brinah Milstein, a billionaire real-estate heiress, and her husband, reality-TV producer Roy Bank, are now suing to block efforts to have 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood considered for historic preservation. They initially obtained permits to demolish the Spanish colonial-style home before city officials backtracked last year. The city is moving to have the home declared a historical landmark, having already gained approval from the Cultural Heritage Commission and the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, CBS News reports.
The full council needs to approve the plan by mid-June. But Milstein and Bank, who purchased the home last July for $8.35 million, say that would be a violation of city code. In a lawsuit filed Monday, the couple claim the city has engaged in "backroom machinations" outside of its normal procedures "in the name of preserving a house which in no way meets any of the criteria for an Historic-Cultural Monument." The couple say Monroe died there "a mere six months" after moving in, and that "there is not a single piece of the house that includes any physical evidence that Ms. Monroe ever spent a day [there]," per the Los Angeles Times. They also claim fans of the star cause a nuisance by flocking to the property.
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The lawsuit claims the city has only suddenly become interested in the historical designation. "For 60 years through 14 owners and numerous remodels and building permits issued by the city, the city has taken no action regarding the now-alleged 'historic' or 'cultural' status of the house," it notes, per CBS. The owners say they've been robbed of "their vested rights as owners of real property" and have suffered "irreparable" harm as a result of the change. They request a court order blocking the monument designation so they can move ahead with demolition. The couple, alleging "abuse of power" and "illegal and unconstitutional conduct," per NBC Los Angeles, intend to expand their current home, just next door. (More Marilyn Monroe stories.)
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