Los Angeles Judge Stops Marilyn Monroe Home Demolition

Marilyn Monroe’s only Los Angeles home has been spared from the wrecking ball.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled in favor of Los Angeles officials and rejected a request from Brinah Milstein and TV producer Roy Bank to demolish Monroe’s Brentwood residence, the New York Post reported. The move aligns with a City Council vote last year that protected the Spanish-style house from demolition.

It all started in September 2023 when Milstein and Bank filed demolition plans for the home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive. The couple bought the home in July of that year for nearly $8.4 million and was able to receive a demolition permit with plans to destroy the historic home to expand its own current residence next door, Deadline reported.

Community pushback was swift. Court papers from the City Attorney’s Office cited by Deadline said the public overwhelmed city officials with calls and emails to “express their dismay” with the demolition plan.

City Council member Traci Park threw a wrench into the mix by moving to designate the home as a historic cultural landmark. The City Council voted in favor of the designation last June. That prompted a lawsuit from Milstein and Bank, who felt their property rights were being violated.

“L.A. has thousands of celebrities who live and die here,” the couple’s attorney, Peter Sheridan, told Bloomberg. “Is every house that those good folks lived in a ‘historic monument’? Not in the least.” The lawsuit claimed “there is not a single piece of the house that includes any physical evidence that Ms. Monroe ever spent a day at the house — not a piece of furniture, not a paint chip, not a carpet, nothing.”

Monroe bought the 2,900-square-foot, four-bedroom house in February 1962 for $77,500, or the equivalent of nearly $832,000 today. The Some Like It Hot star lived on the property for only six months before dying at the home that August at the age of 36. Milstein and Bank bought the adjoining parcel in 2016.

The home will remain intact for now, though it remains to be seen if it will be relocated so Milstein and Bank can move forward with their property expansion.

— Chris Malone Méndez