Marilyn’s final home – and the only property she ever owned – has been saved from another demolition bid, as Mary K. Jacob reports for the New York Post.
“On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge sided with Los Angeles officials, rejecting a request by the property’s current owners to undo the home’s landmark designation. The ruling, delivered in a brief written order without explanation, leaves intact a City Council vote last year to protect the Brentwood residence.
The saga began in September 2023, when demolition paperwork was filed for the property at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, a low-slung hacienda built in 1929 … the 2,900-square-foot four-bedroom house had passed through 14 owners since Monroe bought it in February 1962 for $77,500, which is equivalent to $831,000 today. She lived there just six months before her death from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 36.
Brinah Milstein, daughter of a prominent Cleveland developer, and her husband, reality television producer Roy Bank, acquired the estate for $8.35 million in 2023. The couple, who also own the adjoining parcel, intended to combine the sites and raze Monroe’s onetime refuge.
A demolition permit was initially issued, but preservationists intervened and the city imposed an emergency freeze. The case then shifted to the courts, where lawyers sparred over whether the City Council’s June 2024 designation vote was improperly influenced.
The owners argue the house has been so altered that little remains of Monroe’s time there … Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the district, had introduced the motion and emphasised Monroe’s cultural legacy. Judge James Chalfant observed during a hearing that there was ‘little doubt’ Park was biased when she pushed for landmark status. That observation fuelled the owners’ claim that the process was legally tainted.
The city countered that the designation was legislative, not judicial, and therefore bias was irrelevant. ‘It’s for future generations,’ Deputy City Attorney Lucy Atwood said. ‘It has nothing to do with particular property owners of this property.’ Attorneys for the owners argued otherwise. Glaser Weil partner Peter Sheridan said that in a quasi-judicial context, ‘one biased participant … invalidates an entire decision.’
The courtroom exchanges drew the attention of local preservation advocates. Kim Cooper, co-founder of Esotouric LA, said the hearings spotlighted an often-overlooked bureaucracy … Still, Cooper noted, ‘there could still be a happy ending’ if the owners opted to relocate the house.
‘LA has thousands of celebrities who live and die here,’ Sheridan wrote in an email to Bloomberg earlier this summer. ‘Is every house that those good folks lived in a historic monument? Not in the least.’
Some real estate professionals say the city didn’t act soon enough. ‘In this particular case, it’s too little too late,’ Aaron Kirman, chief executive of Christie’s International Real Estate, Southern California, told the outlet. ‘The city should’ve designated this as a historical site long ago.’
For now, the home remains intact, its high fences and tall trees shielding it from public view.”
The Marilyn Report 