Saving Marilyn Monroe's house [updated]

Gentle reader,

What a wild few days it’s been! On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Post broke a most unusual Exclusive: a demolition permit was being sought for 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, a lovely 1929 Spanish Colonial hacienda with old trees on a large plot of land. But that’s not why it has its own Wikipedia page. It’s because Marilyn Monroe lived, and died, there…. (continues below)

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Update: since this story is still unfolding, we will add chronological items of interest in this boxed off section. Scroll down or search for the name Harold Nebenzal to find the rest of the original newsletter post.

• Friday, 9/8/2023: Soon after city council voted for the Rule 23 motion which produced Council File 23-0953, a City Planning file was created for the Historic-Cultural Monument nomination for 12305 Fifth Helena Drive.

Tiktokker joy.of.everything visited the house and met and interviewed councilwoman Traci Park.

The Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission (LABSC) issued a stop work order for the house demolition and pool fill permits that were granted on Thursday, 9/7/2023, giving the property owner until Monday, 9/18/2023 to provide any reasons by they should not be revoked; this order which we obtained and posted to Archive.org was taped to the gate at the house.

Here is some background on the obscure and powerful city commission that issued the stop work order: in 2006, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa removed LABSC President Javier Nunez in response to allegations that the James K. Hahn appointee was among nine commissioners who received fast tracked building permits from LADBS. Nunez quietly rejoined the commission soon after Eric Garcetti took office in 2014 and is once again President. As reported in this front page and this page five story in the Beverly Hills Courier, residents of Bel Air were not happy with his reappointment. In 2020, Boyle Heights residents were equally distressed when he sought to shut down public comment to rush demolition of the potential city landmark German Hospital. We think Angelenos and journalists should ask why Mayor Karen Bass has not changed the makeup of this commission.

• Saturday, 9/9/2023: Marilyn’s House!, Nathan Marsak’s RIP Los Angeles blog post which played a key role in directing concerned citizens to contact the office of councilwoman Traci Park, is updated with public records and communication from PR reps for Daniel C. Lukas and Anne Jarmain of Glory of the Snow LLC denying the couple have any connection to Glory of the Snow Trust, the entity to which they recently sold the property. Note that the widely reported, ungoogleable name of trust representative "Andrew Sahure" appears to be a typographical error for Andrew Schure. This wrong name even appears in the Building and Safety Commission notice. Actual ownership remains mysterious, with the possibility that the trust name was deliberately chosen to confuse.

Instagrammer merchmotel visited Marilyn’s house and photographed the posted Building and Safety Commission notice, and pink and yellow roses left by fans.

• Sunday, 9/10/2023: We inquired with the Brentwood Community Council, the Neighborhood Council equivalent that under the Demolition Notification Ordinance is supposed to receive 30 day notification before LADBS grants a permit to tear down any structure older than 45 years. They say that they received no city notice, and only learned of the proposed demolition from the story in The Real Deal on 9/8/2023—one day after the demolition permit was granted! On Tuesday, 9/12/2023 at 5:30pm, BCC’s Land Use Committee will discuss this matter in a Zoom meeting that is open to the public.

• Monday, 9/11/2023: One business day after we took credit for our volunteer advocacy with councilwoman Traci Park to stop the impending and illegal demolition of Marilyn Monroe's house, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission emailed us about a trumped up unregistered lobbying accusation. Coincidence?

• Wednesday, 9/13/2023: We're in the New York Times, talking with [expletives deleted] about efforts to save Marilyn Monroe's house. Even better: the paper of record confirms the demo permit was illegal, as the Brentwood Community Council didn't get the required 30 day notice! (Perhaps related: the Los Angeles City Ethics Committee has accused us of being unregistered lobbyists.)

• Wednesday, 9/20/2023: We publish low altitude dronescape footage of Marilyn’s home shot by The Artery.

• A clue! Eagle-eyed Steven Keylon chimes in on our Facebook page that several trees and a large section of wall have been removed between Marilyn’s backyard and the property next door at 12306 6th Helena. That contemporary traditional 5 bedroom house last sold in 2016 for $8.1 Million. The owner is listed as Helena Trust, Jeffrey L. Reuben Trustee. Wall removal requires an LADBS permit in Los Angeles. No such permit has been pulled by the owners of 12306 6th Helena or 12305 5th Helena. Is the mystery owner the next door neighbor? According to Yahoo/Variety, the 6th Helena home is owned by reality television producer Roy Bank.

• Friday, 9/22/2023: Two days after we publish The Artery’s dronescape footage showing a wall and trees removed between the Marilyn Monroe residence and the property next door, The Robb Report claims that the secretive demo seeking buyer is, as suspected, the billionaire heiress Brinah Milstein, of the Federal housing official bribing Milsteins—and suggests she may have blinked. And thanks to the public records sleuthing of Mike Callahan, we can report that today was to have been the first day of five weeks of demolition, had the illegal demolition permit not been halted. Some asbestos was already removed from Monroe’s house on 8/17/2023.

We will continue to update the newsletter with items of interest about Marilyn Monroe's home landmarking. But LADBS' failure to notify the community is a big deal: this means that the demolition permit that was issued and swiftly halted due to the unprecedented actions of councilwoman Traci Park was in fact illegal. So many good buildings have been wrongly destroyed. We need systemic change now.

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We dedicate this preservation campaign to the memory of our dear friend Harold Nebenzal, in honor of his best friend Billy Wilder.

Original newsletter post continues below: The story in the Post spread across old Hollywood loving social media like wildfire. It had everything: an iconic property, associated with a beloved star, threatened with the same hideous fate that so many beautiful but less famous Los Angeles houses have suffered—an off market sale for more money than any decent person would spend on a house, followed by a quick demolition, presumably for a huge, ugly, expensive house that will be torn down in a few years for a more huge, more ugly, more expensive house.

It wasn’t unusual that the Post ran the story—it got a million eyeballs. It was unusual that they got the story at all.

For as L.A. preservationists have long lamented, despite Eric Garcetti’s boasting that he would be the transparency and data Mayor, there is no online database of demolition permits, no central repository for applications to destroy useful homes, offices and storefronts. The only permits easily found are for new buildings, or for demolitions that have already been approved.

Where did Mary K. Jacob get the tip? We think somebody in the City Family must have a soul, and needed to tell the world what its nameless owner had planned for the house that meant so much to Marilyn Monroe, and to her fans around the world. If any reporter in Los Angeles got this tip, they didn’t run with it. But by Tuesday evening, everyone was scrambling for clues.

We, however, were checking the map. Brentwood is in Council District 11, Traci Park’s district. The Demolition Notification Ordinance, in effect since 2018, calls for a public notice before any building can be torn down: a large sign posted in the public right of way, letters to near neighbors, communication with the local Neighborhood Council and the City Council office.

As far as we could determine, nobody had received that notice. Later, we’d send a Westside preservation pal over to see if there was a demolition permit on the gate—thanks, Steve!—and he confirmed that there was no sign that the pretty house at the end of Fifth Helena was threatened.

Next, we called Sean Silva, Field Deputy and Planning Liaison in Traci Park’s office. He had heard about the permit application, and agreed that it was something his boss found concerning and had her staff looking into. “Okay, then we’re going to put the word out that people who care should contact CD 11!”

Since Nathan Marsak had just relaunched his redesigned blog RIP Los Angeles with a promise to post one worrying demolition story daily all through September, we asked him to swap out Wednesday’s planned post for Marilyn's House!—wrapping up this powerful essay with a plea for concerned readers to ask Councilwoman Traci Park to initiate landmark consideration immediately, on the council floor, thus saving many weeks which could prove fatal, if an Historic Cultural Monument nomination was submitted by a private citizen.

By Thursday, The Los Angeles Conservancy, Hollywood Heritage and many social media channels were posting the message: there’s one person in Los Angeles who might be able to save Marilyn’s house, so let her know you care.

And you did, by the hundreds.

We were hopeful. And repeatedly checking the LADBS permit database. And yelling, when LADBS and the city’s other property portal Zimas stopped working. Trying different browsers, asking friends to try. Then suddenly LADBS was back online…

and the demolition permit had been approved!

Yes, barely three days after anyone knew there was a threat to 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, it looked like there was no hope. Except, we never lose hope. What about the legally required 30 days’ notice. What proof was there that it had been followed? Steve had seen no evidence of a sign.

We can’t know what kind of conversation was happening between council staffers, LADBS, Planning Department, Office of Historic Resources and the City Attorney, but we know they were asking questions, too. And every time we touched base, CD 11 let us know the emails were still coming by the dozen, they were trying hard to solve the problem, and they would keep us posted.

After the troubles we had with the previous officeholder in CD 11 around saving a landmark building that had been moved before, this was all extremely refreshing, if a bit disorienting.

First thing this morning, we were on the phone with CD 11 and the Los Angeles Conservancy, getting a preview of the fascinating policy plan that had come together late Thursday. The councilwoman would be holding a press conference before the council meeting began, to announce her motion to consider Marilyn’s house as a city landmark.

You can watch that press conference here, and Park’s introduction of the unusual, emergency Rule 23 Motion here. The motion passed. And with a flick of the pen, the bulldozers have been halted.

What is like behind those tall gates, in the property where Marilyn Monroe spent her last months of life? In 2013, before the last sale, a mother and daughter trespassed on the grounds and shot a fascinating video. The excitement and anxiety in their voices is as interesting to us as the glimpses of this special home. It’s only brick and stone and tile, yet it means so much to people.

And soon, the Cultural Heritage Commissioners will tour the property, taking dozens of photos that will become public record as part of the formal process of landmark consideration. They will determine if 12305 Fifth Helena Drive merits inclusion on the city’s list, and if so, what character defining features are to be protected under the ordinance so that this place will always remain recognizable to the pilgrims who come from all over the world to breathe the same sweet air that their favorite star once breathed.

Everyone we’ve talked to today is so happy. But somewhere, maybe in Los Angeles, maybe on a 300’ yacht in some foreign bay, somebody is not happy. They quietly paid a fortune for this house in an off market deal, and had plans to demolish, and perhaps also to build something. The very public process that will follow, now that landmark consideration has begun, may reveal something of those plans. We might even find out who owns the house. And no doubt there will be lively debates about the conflict between private property rights and the restrictions imposed by the historic preservation ordinance.

But the new owner, and the old ones, can’t say they weren’t warned. In July 2017, when the house last changed hands, the then anonymous real estate blogger Yolanda wrote:

A cautionary note: the listing for this property somewhat ominously mentions that this is “the largest parcel in all the Helenas” which Yolanda takes as a subtle hint that the .53-acre spread could easily accommodate a much larger and more family-friendly mansion. And the stark contrast in the looks of Mr. Lukas’s Venice house to this place makes us worry that the land value is what may have attracted him and the missus to purchase this mini-estate.

Look, kiddies, we’re all for personal property rights and blah, blah, blah. But a house like this is really a part of history and should be treated as such, limited architectural significance be damned. Yep, we said it. Yolanda just laid it out like that and that is how we’re gonna leave it.

Let us hope Mr. Lukas and Ms. Jarmain have the good sense to preserve this treasure. Otherwise, hun buns, Ms. Monroe’s legions of fans will come a-knockin’. And 55 years after her death, she still has plenty. Icons are blessed like that.

And that, friends, is what you call a material fact that must be disclosed in any real estate transfer.

And so as we prepare for tomorrow’s Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour, a truly unhinged excursion that we haven’t offered since 2019, we’re raising a toast to that unknown person with access to city documents who sounded the alarm, and helped bring fans of Marilyn Monroe, Spanish Colonial architecture and honest government together to fight for something special. And if you join us on the bus tomorrow, we can tell you even more that’s too hot for this newsletter!

Also, and by popular demand, we’ve added another Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue walking tour on Saturday, October 7.

yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

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Psst… 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. 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

• Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 9/9) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood Walking Tour (Sat. 9/16) • University Park Walking Tour (Sat. 9/23) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Walking Tour (Sat. 10/7) • Eastside Babylon Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 10/14) • The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Southern California Nightmare Bus Tour (Sat. 10/21) • The Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 10/28) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 Walking Tour (Sun. 10/29) • The Run: Gay Downtown History Walking Tour (Sat. 11/4)