Marilyn Monroe home landmark vote is Wednesday, June 12 in Los Angeles City Hall
Gentle reader,
Exactly nine months ago, on September 9, we sent out our first newsletter missive documenting the grassroots community effort to get Los Angeles City Council to consider making Marilyn Monroe’s home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood a Historic-Cultural Monument.
Since then, we’ve continued to report on the preservation advocacy of concerned citizens, the minutiae of the formal designation consideration process, unpublished building plans, and the decision by the property owners to seek relief in the courts even before the final determination is made.
This newsletter and our social media channels have helped to break major elements of an international news story. While the legal issues might drag on indefinitely, all that’s left now for City Council to do is cast its yay or nay landmarking vote to either throw a shawl of protection over the house, or kick it out into the night to be destroyed.
Which will it be? We’ll know the answer very soon, because when Los Angeles City Council gathers at 10 am on Wednesday, June 12 in John Ferraro Council Chambers, item #3 on the agenda is:
CATEGORICAL EXEMPTION and PLANNING AND LAND USE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE REPORT relative to the inclusion of Marilyn Monroe Residence, located at 12305 West 5th Helena Drive, in the list of Historic-Cultural Monuments.
By mid-day the world will know if the City considers Marilyn Monroe’s final residence worthy of designation as a protected monument, for its cultural association with the brightest star of them all.
As the date for the final hearing approached and the press reported on the property owners’ injunction seeking to pause the process—as expected, Judge Chalfant denied it on June 4—concerned citizens have been swarming to the Council File Management System to submit written public comments.
You can write something to City Council, too, by clicking the NEW button here.
We’ve read a lot of public comments, and this collection just feels different. While most are short and sweet—and all but a very few favor preservation—a number of writers take the time to reflect deeply on how much Marilyn Monroe means to them personally and to Los Angeles, sharing heartfelt insights, concerns and hopes that the house can be saved and Marilyn’s memory honored.
If you click files on the right here, you can read these comments for yourself. These remarks particularly resonated:
"Don’t let a pair of short-sighted individuals take away LA history for all of us. [It] is a collective history, no one person should have sole capacity to destroy it." -Denise
"Marilyn Monroe's story is both uplifting and tragic. Life isn't always fair, but it can have it's good moments too… Her story is American history. The world and heaven above loved her. The public outcry over the threat to her house only proves that she is still loved to this day." -Terrence Anthony London
“This home is much more valuable than its monetary worth. It's a piece of California history. Marilyn is still loved; destroying her home would be similar to desecrating her grave. -Deborah Raymond
If you’d like to have a say in what happens to Marilyn Monroe’s house, then submit your written comment by the end of the day Tuesday. While you’re welcome to come to City Hall for the formal vote, it’s likely it will be “on consent” with no opportunity for comments. The proceedings can be viewed live on the city’s website or on YouTube.
If you do come to City Hall and wish to speak, you can visit the kiosk by the door and sign up to make a ”general public comment” in order to convey your thoughts about historic preservation. You can try to sign up for Agenda item #3 as well.
You never know how a Council vote will go, but we’re pretty confident that City Council will agree with the Office of Historic Resources’ staff report, the PLUM Committee and countless fans around the world that Marilyn Monroe’s home should be declared an L.A. landmark.
Still, it never hurts to appeal to kind spirits on the other side, so at some point during Tuesday’s 1pm St. Vibiana Circle, the new monthly gathering dedicated to building community to advance historic preservation and housing justice, we’ll visit the saint’s subterranean chapel and let her know about this important vote.
Whatever happens on Wednesday, we’ll continue to report on the legal challenges to the landmark nomination, and on the serious problems with how the city handles notification of potential demolitions, so stay tuned.
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. You can share this post to win subscriber perks. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 6/29) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 7/6) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 7/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels and Madness (Sun. 7/21) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 7/27 - sorry, sold out) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 8/4) • West Adams Sugar Hill and Angelus Rosedale Cemetery (Sat. 8/10) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess (Sun. 8/25) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 8/31)