Marilyn Monroe's Los Angeles house confirmed as a cultural landmark and won't be demolished

The Los Angeles home where Marilyn Monroe last lived won't be razed after all, after members of the city council voted unanimously to designate it a historic cultural monument.

Monroe purchased the home, at 12305 West 5th Helena Drive in the Brentwood area, for $75,000 in 1962. The star of movies such as Some Like it Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and The Misfits, died of what was officially ruled an overdose at the same residence just six months later.

The politicians' vote has been long in the making. After the building's owner, Glory of the Snow Trust, obtained a permit to demolish the house in September 2023, the council temporarily suspended the permit so it could study the issue further. Committees determined that the property did qualify for historic preservation, but the council's adoption had still been needed.

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Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the area where the house sits, said before the vote that members had the opportunity to do what "should've been done 60 years ago," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Park pledged to introduce a motion regarding the unwanted traffic from tour buses that neighbors had complained about, but she made her overall feelings clear.

"To lose this piece of history, the only home that Monroe ever owned, would be a devastating blow for historic preservation and for a city where less than 3 percent of historic designations are associated with women's heritage," Park said.

Real estate heiress Brinah Milstein and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? reality TV producer Roy Bank, who own the estate next door, reportedly bought the Monroe house in 2023 for $8.35 million, with the intention of enlarging their own. The couple sued the city in May for the right to go ahead with the demolition, accusing officials of acting unconstitutionally to save a site unworthy of historic preservation. The lawsuit remains unresolved, according to KTLA.

Following Wednesday's vote, Milstein and Bank's attorney Peter C. Sheridan said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly that it was part of an "unconstitutional and rigged process" and alleged that renovations to the property by previous owners that were approved by the city resulted in there being “nothing left reflecting Ms. Monroe’s brief time there 60 years ago.”

“Traci Park’s actions today and throughout the process, disregarding the interests of her constituents and the facts and merits, demonstrate that no one’s home or investment is safe,” Sheridan said in the statement.

Monroe died at just 36, but interest in the actress has continued more than six decades after her death. As just one measure, Forbes ranked her 12th on its latest list of the highest-paid dead celebrities. Between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023, Monroe's estate had made $10 million on licensing and merchandising deals, Forbes calculated.