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U.S.|Marilyn Monroe’s Los Angeles Home Is Saved From Demolition
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/us/marilyn-monroe-house-los-angeles.html
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A judge denied a neighbor’s petition to raze the Spanish-style hacienda, which the City Council had declared a cultural landmark.
Sept. 7, 2025, 12:40 p.m. ET
The Los Angeles home where the actress Marilyn Monroe spent the final months of her life was saved, yet again, this time by a judge who denied a request from its current owners to raze it.
The owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, own an adjacent property and sought to combine the properties after buying Ms. Monroe’s former home in August 2023 for $8.4 million.
But in a brief order released last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, James C. Chalfant, ruled against their petition for demolition, ending a two-year legal battle between the owners and the city.
The Department of Building and Safety granted a permit to demolish the Spanish-style hacienda shortly after Ms. Milstein and her husband, Mr. Bank, acquired the property at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, which Ms. Monroe lived in for about six months in 1962.
Ms. Milstein is an heir of a wealthy real estate family, and Mr. Bank is a former reality television producer and head of development for the company behind “Survivor” on CBS and “The Apprentice” on NBC.
But news of the demolition permit led to an outcry from many Angelenos, historians, preservationists and fans of Ms. Monroe around the world.
