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When Marilyn Monroe was just 17 years old and got her first big break as a magazine pinup, she lived in a quaint home in the San Fernando Valley. While fans were in the midst of championing for the house to get designated as a historical landmark, they were surprised to find out Monroe's old pad got demolished this week.
Monroe, who was then still known as Norma Jean Dougherty, lived in the back house of the Valley Village property located at 5258 Hermitage Ave. for about a year from 1944 to 1945, Los Angeles Daily News reports. 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. And the rest is history.
The Cultural Heritage Commission was supposed to hear people out on Thursday about deeming the house as a Historic-Cultural Monument. But before that even happened, the company that owned the house, Joe Salem of Hermitage Enterprises LLC, bulldozed it down three days prior to make way for condos. (You can see the artist renderings here of what the new digs are supposed to look like once construction is finished.)
City officials basically said that there wasn't anything really special about this house since Monroe's career didn't really pick up until after she moved out of the home. The house alone also wasn't especially striking to be designated a cultural landmark.
Some are accusing Salem of violating a law, saying that he was supposed to give a 30-day public notice in order to tear down buildings that are more than 45 years old.
Here's a video with more details about the house.
