Marilyn Monroe's Only House Still Stands and Nobody Can Go In

There are two words carved into the front porch of a house in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Cursum perficio. The journey ends here. The tiles were laid in 1929, thirty-three years before Marilyn Monroe bought the place. She was found dead in the bedroom six months later, at thirty-six. It was the only house she ever owned. It still stands. Its new owners bought it for $8.35 million with a demolition permit in hand, and were stopped twice — first by a unanimous City Council vote, then by a judge, twice. The house is now a protected Historic-Cultural Monument. It is also private property, walled and gated, at the end of a dead-end street. Nobody can go in. *Sources* Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission report CHC-2023-6134-HCM on the Marilyn Monroe Residence LA Conservancy on the June 2024 monument designation Deadline, CBS Los Angeles and Time Out on the court rulings of 2024 and September 2025 Robb Report on the 2023 sale and demolition permit