4th Street is also home to The Art Theater , the oldest operating single screen house in Long Beach . The Art originally opened in 1924 as The Carter Theatre with 636 seats , an orchestra pit and pipe organ . It was constructed in a modest vernacular style with " orientalizing " touches reminiscent of Grauman 's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood . Two storefronts flanked the theater . In 1934 , the theater was remodeled in art deco streamline " moderne " style by Schilling & Schilling after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and renamed The Lee Theatre . Additions included the ticket booth , terrazzo floor and zigzag elements like the stepped piers , vertical fluting , and the central-stepped vertical tower that unfolds as a fern . This tower has also been likened to the bow of a ship cutting through the water . In 1947 , the theatre was remodeled again with a larger marquee and renamed The Art Theatre . In 2008 , the theater was updated using the original blueprints , but with new interior , new sound and vision upgrades and restored exterior including a replica of the 1934 marquee and art deco trademark symmetrical storefronts . Named Retro-Row by Christopher Reece in his Antique & Retro Shoppers Map , a guide to So. Calif. antiques shopping
1933 Long Beach earthquake
1933 Long Beach earthquake
4th Street Corridor