Marilyn Monroe’s Last Home Saved From Demolition (For Now)

Modest by today’s standards, the 2,900-square-foot Brentwood home that iconic star Marilyn Monroe bought in the early 1960s is notable for several reasons: It’s the only property the actress independently owned. It’s the place where she was found dead of a sleeping pill overdose at age 36. And it’s a building that a shadowy and nameless owner almost destroyed until the Los Angeles City Council stepped in to stop it.

News that the owner of 12305 Fifth Helena Drive wanted to destroy the home spread quickly this week after the New York Post reported that it was in “the initial stages of the demolition process.” The four-bedroom, three-bath Spanish Colonial hacienda, which Monroe bought for $75,000 as her third marriage, with playwright Arthur Miller, came to its end, had been evaluated for landmark status in 2013, but that process stalled, despite it being—as movie producer and neighbor Rodney Liber put it to the LA Times—“one of the most famous houses in the world.”

That famous house was sold in 2017 to an LLC called Glory of the Snow for $7.25 million; in July, it was sold to the similarly named Glory of the Snow Trust for $8.35 million, the LAT reports. However, the actual humans behind the company names are unclear. 

The LLC was managed by Emerald Lake hedge fund manager Dan Lukas and his wife Anne Jarmain. The trust names a person called “Andrew Sahure” as its trustee, but that’s a moniker which boasts no Google or public records results beyond this matter. (Gardners will note, however, that “glory of the snow” is the common name for chionodoxa luciliae, a spring-blooming perennial known for its purple flowers. Do with that what you may.)

It’s unclear if anyone currently lives in the house, or why its owners want to destroy it, but as news spread of the plan, neighbors and preservationists sprang into action. A spokesperson for LA Councilwoman Traci Park says that their office received “hundreds of calls” asking her to step in, Reuters reports. And step in she did, introducing a council motion Friday asking the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC) to consider the home for inclusion in LA’s list of historic cultural monuments. The motion was approved unanimously, giving the CHC 75 days to evaluate and approve the house as a landmark.

In response, LA’s Board of Building and Safety Commissioners paused any potential work at the site, saying in a letter to the owners that the preliminary approval for demolition was “issued in error.”

“Under the Cultural Heritage Ordinance, this action immediately triggers a temporary stay on all building permits while the matter is under consideration by the Cultural Heritage Commission and City Council,“ KTLA reports the letter as reading. “Also, the property, regardless of whether a permit exists or does not exist, shall not be demolished, substantially altered or removed.”

“This will be the first step in ensuring that we can protect this home against demolition,” Park told ABC 7. “The overwhelming sentiment here is clear. This home must be preserved as a crucial piece of Hollywood’s and the city of Los Angeles’ history, culture and legacy.”