Landmark last home of Marilyn Monroe saved from bulldozers

Bulldozers were revved and ready to raze the house once belonging of one history’s most famous women, but it has been saved.

Los Angeles’ local council has stepped in to protect Marilyn Monroe’s California home, where she was found dead in 1962, after the owners applied – successfully, at one point – to demolish it.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously this weeek to make Monroe’s former Brentwood estate a designated “historical cultural monument”.

A public recommendation document by the LA council includes photos of the Mediterranean-style house, from the terracotta roof to the white-washed external walls and the green kidney-shaped pool.

The document explains that Monroe – the star of 29 movies – was not only a major American cultural figure, but also a woman buying a house in the 1930’s, on her own, was unheard of.

Last year, the owners of 12305 Fifth Helena Drive – who paid $US7.5 million ($AU10.9 million) for it in 2017 – were granted a demolition order, but that was nullified when the council voted to debate its protection status.

Fourteen people have owned the house since Monroe died there aged 36. It was where she lived for the last six months of her life and was the only house she is known to have bought.

Local council had granted multiple permits to those many previous owners to remodel the dwelling, which they did, the current owners argued.

Councilor Traci Park, who led the rescue push, said bowling over the property would be a “blow” to LA’s historical footprint and it should have been heritage listed decades ago.

She said she has been consulting with the owners to see if they would be willing to relocate the house to a public place. Although that commitment has not been made, she continues to work with them on the idea, The Independent reported.

“Colleagues, we have an opportunity to do something today that should have been done 60 years a

go,” Park said at the council meeting, reported by The Independent. “There is no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home.

“To lose this piece of history, the only home that Marilyn 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.”

The owners went as far as suing the council when they indicated a vote on its monument status was pending.

They put forward there was no evidence at the house of Monroe’s presence.

“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,” the suit said, according to The Independent.

A judge rejected their application for injunctive relief on June 4. In the ruling, the judge said owners’ application was an “ill-disguised motion to win so that they can demolish the home and eliminate the historic cultural monument issue”.