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The only home Marilyn Monroe ever owned was rescued from the wrecking ball for a second time last week, after the current owners sought to undo the house’s official designation as an important historical landmark.
The owners, a real estate heiress and a former reality TV producer, had bought the Spanish-style hacienda in Brentwood, California, in 2023 for $8.4 million ($12.7 million Australian in today’s money). The couple promptly requested to demolish it, since they already lived on the adjoining block of land and intended to create one large property.
While the City of Los Angeles initially permitted them to raze Marilyn’s final home, which was built in 1929, a city councillor called for an emergency vote to block the demolition by granting the house, named ‘Cursum Perficio’, landmark status.
The plucky couple continued to ‘fight city hall’ for two years, arguing that many of the 14 custodians who’d owned the house since Marilyn’s death in 1962 had renovated it.
But the matter’s been put to bed; last week, a judge ruled in favour of keeping the landmark designation. Meaning no one should ever be able to knock down Marilyn’s former home and refuge.
When did Marilyn Monroe live here?
Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe bought the Spanish colonial revival house in March 1962 for $75,000 (about $1.2 million Australian in today’s money).
While she lived in homes with her former husbands, including Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, this four-bedroom hacienda is the only house she ever purchased on her own. (Back then, it was a more modest two-bedroom house.)
Having survived a traumatic childhood that included living in foster homes and orphanages, the Golden Globe-winning actress coveted lasting love, stability and a peaceful home life. She reportedly moved more than 40 times in her short life.
While Marilyn lived at the Brentwood, Los Angeles, house, she flew to New York to appear at Madison Square Garden for a Democratic fundraiser gala that also celebrated President John F. Kennedy’s 45th birthday. In front of around 15,000 guests and wearing a flesh-coloured, rhinestone-covered gown, Marilyn performed her sultry, history-making rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’.
It would be one of her final public appearances before her death.
Can you visit Marilyn Monroe’s house?
You can visit the gate to Marilyn’s final home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, Brentwood, which is at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac.
Unfortunately, you can’t see the secluded Spanish-style home from the street due to privacy landscaping, but it’s a common pilgrimage site for fans, who often leave flowers and tributes in the street.
Brentwood is a haven for Hollywood heavy-hitters, such as Harrison Ford, Jennifer Garner and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Reese Witherspoon sold her English-style Brentwood estate a couple of years ago for more than $30 million.
Where did Marilyn Monroe die?
Sadly, in August 1962, just six months after buying it, Marilyn was found unresponsive in the bedroom of her Brentwood home by her housekeeper and her psychiatrist. She had died from an overdose of barbiturate drugs at just 36 years old. The world mourned the loss of its first true movie starlet, ‘a candle in the wind’.
Marilyn’s tenure at the house was so brief that unpacked boxes were found throughout the home after she passed away.
Eerily, the house was named ‘Cursum Perficio’, which loosely translates to ‘Here ends my journey’. Decorative tiles marked with those two little Latin words are embedded in the home’s doorstep.
Take a tour of Marilyn’s house
The kitchen
The living room
The backyard
