(NewsWorthy.news) – A unanimous vote by the Los Angeles City Council declared Marilyn Monroe’s former residence in Westside Hollywood to be a historic cultural monument, stopping an attempt by the current owners to demolish the house.
On Wednesday, June 26, the Los Angeles City Council stopped the demolition of Monroe’s former home in a unanimous vote to declare it a historic cultural landmark.
Los Angeles 11th District representative, councilwoman Traci Park, said right before the vote that the council faced “an opportunity to do something” that should’ve been done “60 years ago.” Park claimed that likely no other woman “in history or culture” captured the public’s imagination the way Monroe did. The councilwoman noted how Monroe’s story continues to resonate and inspire many people today.
The 1929 house, located at 12305 West Fifth Helena Drive, is where Monroe’s body was found on August 4, 1962, when she died at the age of 36. The death of the iconic actress, who became a symbol of feminine beauty, shocked the world. In 1999, she was named the sixth-greatest female actress of Hollywood’s Golden Age by the American Film Institute.
Park filed a motion in September to designate the house as a historic cultural monument, saying destroying the home would strike a “devastating blow” to the city’s preservation of historic sites “associated with women’s heritage.”
Back in January, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted to bar the current owners from demolishing the house. The new owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, sued the city in May for revoking their demolition permit after purchasing the property for $8.35 million in July 2023, and argued granting historical recognition to the house was a violation of the law.
Judge James Chalfant of the Los Angeles Superior Court tentatively ruled in the city’s favor. Milstein and Bank’s attorneys called the historical designation ruling “another step” in a process they called “biased, unconstitutional, and rigged.”
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