Marilyn Monroe's 2,900-square-foot Spanish Colonial home in Brentwood is a historic property for several reasons. The residence is situated at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in the neighborhood of Brentwood in Los Angeles, California. Not only is it the first home that the iconic Hollywood star bought independently in the early 1960s, but it is also the place where the actor was found dead at the age of 36.
Marilyn Monroe's Brentwood home was almost demolished by its nameless current owner until Traci Park, a Los Angeles City Councilmember, stepped in at the correct time to save it.
The L.A. City Council went on to grant a temporary reprieve in a unanimous vote to this historical property of Hollywood, taking a pivotal step towards its permanent preservation.
The Brentwood home of Marilyn Monroe is a Spanish Colonial hacienda
The 2,900-square-foot Brentwood house of Monroe, which is a Spanish Colonial hacienda, has a total of four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The L-shaped property was built in 1929. The iconic Hollywood actor Marilyn Monroe bought it in the early 1960s, for a total of $75,000.
Marilyn Monroe bought the hacienda house independently right after her marriage to her third husband, famous playwright Arthur Miller, ended. The property gained landmark status back in 2013, however, that procedure stalled.
One of the neighbours in the area, Rodney Liber, who is also a movie producer, called it "one of the most famous houses in the world" in an article in the LA Times, as per Vanity Fair.
In 2017, the iconic home was sold initially to an LLC named Glory of the Snow for a total of $7.25 million. As reported by Vanity Fair, in July, the resident was again sold to the Glory of the Snow Trust for a total of $8.35 million.
But the exact names of the human owners who are behind the company and purchase were not disclosed.
As per the news outlet, the LLC was under the name of Dan Lukas, Emerald Lake hedge fund manager and his wife Anne Jarmain. The trust has named a person called “Andrew Sahure” as the organization's trustee, however, no other information apart from this is available on Google or any other public record.
It is not clear if anybody currently resides in the Brentwood home of Marilyn Monroe. The reason behind the nameless owner's desire to demolish it has also not been revealed.
However, the news that the current owner wanted to put down the house spread quickly right after it was released by the New York Post. The report said that the house was in "the initial stages of the demolition process."
As reported by Reuters, Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park's office received numerous calls asking for her help to step in and save the house from getting demolished.
Park's passionate will to save the place, in addition to the hundreds of requests from the callers, made her step in.
She introduced a council motion, asking the Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC) of the city to consider the place a part of the list of historic cultural monuments in L.A.
The request was unanimously approved, providing the CHC with 75 days to explore and evaluate Monroe's house as a landmark property.
LA’s Safety Commissioners and Board of Building went on to pause any work at the site in response to the approval and sent a letter to the owners. The letter said, as per KTLA:
"Under the Cultural Heritage Ordinance, this action immediately triggers a temporary stay on all building permits while the matter is under consideration by the Cultural Heritage Commission and City Council,...Also, the property, regardless of whether a permit exists or does not exist, shall not be demolished, substantially altered or removed."
In an interview with ABC 7, Park said that it is the very first step in the direction of saving the iconic star's property from demolition. It will be quite interesting to see what will be the final fate of the Brentwood home.
