The couple also spent time at Millerâs 1769 Revolutionary Warâera clapboard farmhouse on 350 acres in Roxbury, Connecticut. A âcool breeze always seemed to blow through the line of grand maples in front of the house,â Miller once wrote of the bucolic estate. The pair thought about knocking down the four-bedroom house that Miller bought in 1949 after writing Death of a Salesman and replacing it with a new design Monroe had commissioned from Frank Lloyd Wright. But Miller didnât like the famed architectâs plan, which involved a dramatic domed ceiling, and didnât want to take on a gut renovation. The playwright lived there until his death in 2005ârequesting that he be taken there from his sisterâs New York City apartment while in hospice. Upon his death, Miller donated 55 acres to the Roxbury Land Trust, and in 2015, his daughter Rebecca (with third wife Inge Morath) donated an additional 100 acres.
Mediterranean-style LA home
When the increasingly fragile Monroeâs marriage to Miller ended after five years, she bought her very first house, which she described as âa cute little Mexican-style house with eight rooms,â for $77,500 (or about $810,000, adjusted for inflation) in February 1962. The gated, L-shaped 1929 Spanish Colonial revival with a red-tile roof on a cul-de-sac had white stucco walls, two bedrooms (it now has four), adobe walls, and wood-beamed ceilings. Monroeâs bedroom had a tiled fireplaceâas did the living roomâwith patio doors leading to a courtyard. A small guesthouse, a swimming pool, and a spacious garden rounded out the property. Monroe lived at the 2,900-square-foot residence, which she called her fortress, for a mere six months before her tragic death at the home.
In 2023, the propertyâs owner applied for a permit to tear down the historic dwelling. Widespread outrage prompted the LA city council to designate the home a cultural historic landmark, saving it from demolition. âWe have an opportunity to do something today that shouldâve been done 60 years ago. Thereâs no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,â council member Traci Park said at the time. âTo lose this piece of history, the only home that Monroe ever owned, would be a devastating blow for historic preservation and for a city where less than 3% of historic designations are associated with womenâs heritage.â
Though her tenure at the home was short, it was immortalized in a Life magazine feature. âAnybody who likes my house, I am sure I will get along with,â she said.