A September 5 New York Post article may have “saved” Marilyn Monroe’s home in Los Angeles. The article, titled The Only Home Marilyn Monroe Ever Owned, and Where She Died, Faces Demolition, revealed that the property’s owners had quietly started paperwork to get permission to build a new home at the legendary address of 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Fans united in outrage. And you can breathe a sigh of relief, for now, the city hall is preventing the house from being demolished or any modifications being made to the property.
Marilyn Monroe bought the house in 1962 for more than $77,000, months before she was found dead there. It was her first property and her last, fatally called “Cursum Perficio”, which translates as Here my journey ends. Small and simple, unlike the mansions that Hollywood stars still tend to choose, it measures around 270 square meters, is single-story and Hacienda-style and is located on a dead-end street near San Vicente Boulevard. Today it is estimated at around 8.35 million dollars.
Since the actress’ death, the property has changed owners until the current ones, and they clearly have no historical connection because they requested a demolition license in August 2023 (close to the anniversary of Marilyn’s death). The request was a mere formality and the owners must have regretted it because, once it was announced, the demolition was stopped. Now they will have to wait at least six months and if the house is considered a Historical-Cultural Monument, it can never be significantly altered.
It was not the first time that the protection request was made. 10 years ago, there was a first attempt to consider Spanish or colonial-style villas as the city’s historic heritage. What hindered the process was precisely that it was still private property. Technicians from the Urban Planning Department could only see it from the outside and the report did not reach a definitive conclusion, as it is not known what it looks like inside. From what is known, over these more than 60 years, the house has already undergone some changes to the kitchen and bathrooms, as well as gaining an annex building as a guest house linked to the main residence. When Marilyn bought it, for an estimated 760 thousand dollars in today’s values, the property had historical value, as it was built in 1929 and already had handmade tiles, including those with the inscription “Cursum Perficio”. It also already had vaulted wooden ceilings with exposed beams, terracotta floors and the swimming pool, which, reportedly, she never got to enter. Although she never completed her decoration, there were still unopened boxes when she died, Marilyn filled the house with crafts brought from Mexico and had plans to make the address a home like she never had in her short and tragic trajectory.
The radical request to demolish the house was what moved the actress’s fan base. In six decades, the house was relatively “respected” and the risk of disappearing still exists. The Los Angeles City Council will define the fate of the property after, on September 8, 2023, the City Council voted to initiate procedures to name Marilyn’s house as a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM). Currently, more than 1200 properties are protected and cannot be changed. Studying the application can take up to six months before a decision is reached and the owners can appeal. Fans from all over the world eagerly await the conclusion. It would be poetic to keep your address intact.
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