In English, cursum perficio translates to “the journey ends here.” It’s carved into the front porch of the modest hacienda on 5th Helena Drive where Marilyn Monroe’s life came to its tragic close in August 1962. And now, fittingly enough, it doubles as the epigraph to the years-long legal wrangling over whether the Brentwood home should be deemed a historical landmark.
For the second time in as many years, Monroe’s last residence (and the only house she ever owned) has been spared. In a terse ruling on September 8, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant rejected a legal challenge from the property’s owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, upholding the City Council’s earlier designation of the home as a Historic Cultural Monument.
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The Spanish Colonial-style hacienda sat on the brink of demolition after being purchased for $8.35 million with plans to raze it and merge the lot with an adjacent estate. The buyers argued that decades of renovations had erased any trace of Monroe’s presence from the structure.
But the property ultimately proved more symbolically powerful than the new owners suspected. Spurred by an avalanche of letters, petitions and viral outrage last year, Councilmember Traci Park moved swiftly to preserve the house. In June 2024, the City Council voted unanimously to halt its demolition and enshrine it as a Historic Cultural Monument, a move later backed by the Cultural Heritage Commission.
The ruling from Judge Chalfant likely marks the final word on the matter. It stands as a legal testament to public sentiment: that sometimes, historical significance trumps property rights, especially when what’s at risk is a piece of cultural identity, no matter how modest its stature.
For Los Angeles, where real estate development often steamrolls over heritage conservation and history often gets consigned to the dustbin and the landfill, this is rare, welcome news. The house at the quiet cul-de-sac is not a flashy, star-studded mansion. It is, rather, a quiet mausoleum of cultural memory. And now, at least for the foreseeable future, its journey remains intact and at an end.