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Marilyn Monroe’s House Bulldozed For Condos, Fans Outraged At Destruction

By Regina Avalos
Published on: 00:55 PST, Jun 21, 2015

Marilyn Monroe’s house was bulldozed on Monday to make room for a new condominium development, according to Laist. The Valley Village property housed the star when she was still known as Norma Jeane. At the age of 16, she moved into the home to live with her first husband and his parents. She lived there for about a year, and it was during this time that she was discovered and began to model.

Fans of the Hollywood icon had been seeking to have the property marked as a landmark, and a meeting was scheduled last Thursday to discuss the possibility. However, Joe Salem of Hermitage Enterprises LLC went forward and demolished the property on Monday. It is being reported that the destruction was done illegally because the proper paperwork was not filed with the city beforehand. It is required that certain papers are filed before the destruction of a property that is 45 years or older.

According to KTLA, a condominium development will be built on the property, and those three-bedroom homes will cost $1 million each. The home was surrounded by apartment buildings on either side.

According to News Max, one Marilyn Monroe fan shared her anger over the destruction of the property with the media.

“I can’t even breathe. My neighbors and I are in mourning. It’s one of the biggest losses in the San Fernando Valley. I’m beyond outrage.”

Why was the home demolished just days before the Cultural Heritage Commission hearing? Ken Bernstein, director of the Office of Historic Resources, spoke with the media about the property. City officials had already decided that the home was not important enough to be saved.

Ken Bernstein spoke with the media about the property. “Obviously, Marilyn Monroe is an iconic figure, but while she had been living in the house when discovered, the house … isn’t associated with a productive period in her career.”

The home, located at 5258 Hermitage Ave in the Valley Village area of the San Fernando Valley, was one of 30 homes in Los Angeles that Monroe lived in during her iconic career. The structure was built in 1912. Laist shared more about the time Monroe lived in the home.

“At the time, the soon-to-be starlet was a housewife married to James Dougherty, a sailor who was away at war, and lived with his parents at the house. Her life was a lot different then: the Los Angeles native was working a job inspecting parachutes for World War II efforts. But it was there that she first got noticed and was asked to model for military magazines to “boost morale.” She would later divorce James and move out as she became a star on the silver screen.”

According to the Huffington Post, Monroe spoke about her first marriage to James Dougherty in an interview, and she said, “My marriage brought me neither happiness nor pain. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn’t because we were angry. We had nothing to say.” It has been reported that the marriage was “one of circumstance.”

The actress had to marry or face placement in an orphanage. A video gives fans even more details and a closer look at the home. Fans have taken to social media to share their outrage and sadness over the destruction of the property this week. Many posted their thoughts on Twitter.

Marilyn Monroe died more than 50 years ago, but she is still considered one of the largest Hollywood icons and one of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen. To this day, fans want to know all they can about the actress.

According to a previous Inquisitr report, The Secret Life Of Marilyn aired on Lifetime last month. Many actresses have portrayed the iconic star in films since her death. This time, it was Kelli Garner that helped fans learn more about Monroe’s troubled life between age 15 to the time of her death at age 36.

Monroe would have turned 89 years old on June 1. This month, several new photos of the star have surfaced on the internet. On Saturday, Daily Mail shared some rare never-before-seen photos of Monroe’s early days as a model for Blue Book Models.

This was the modeling agency that launched her career.

“She hated the job and living with her husband’s parents. So when a photographer organised a few modelling assignments for her, it seemed to offer a way out. James initially approved of the work but made it clear that he would only tolerate it until he returned. While she was at the factory the family trusted Norma Jeane completely, possibly because mother-in-law Ethel worked there too and could keep an eye on her. But when she was crowned ‘Queen of the Radio Plane Picnic’ during a company outing, they saw that a normal life with a house and children was not on her mind.”

The photos were found in a box that a couple took home with them to the Netherlands. The man never looked inside.

“[The box] was stored under a desk and promptly forgotten – until 2012 when a dealer telephoned from the U.S. about a client who was a big Marilyn fan. Ben remembered the box and went to check what it contained. He was stunned. It was the archive of Blue Book, the modelling agency that launched Marilyn’s career. There were negatives, letters, telegrams, photos and worksheets.”

For fans who want to own their own piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, several items are up for auction later this week in the Hollywood Legends Auction. One of the items is a dress worn by the actress in the film Something’s Got To Give, according to the New York Daily News.

What do you think of the destruction of Marilyn Monroe’s home?

[Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images]

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