Beacham Theatre
Despite the new recognition for the theater by the City of Orlando, Mr. Juarez saw the building as a liability with many pleasant memories surrounding it, but with little economic potential. Citing maintaining the building and rehabilitation of the area, he first announced plans to raze the building for an unspecified mix-use purpose and later to redevelop the former Beacham Block with a new skyscraper that would be used as a combination office building and hotel. In 1988 Juarez received two successive approval Certificate of Appropriateness permits from the City of Orlando Board of Historic Preservation to demolish the Beacham Theatre within 180 days. The "Bye-bye Beacham Bash" was promptly organized by Orlando Remembered and attended by former theater doormen, ushers, candy girls, and cashiers on December 9, 1988. However, Mr. Juarez's redevelopment plan and the new construction of a 20-story office building and parking garage fell through at the last moment due to poor timing. Additional parking could have contributed to a revitalized downtown area, but the market for office space in Downtown Orlando was nearly saturated in the late 1980s and there was a general lack of interest from prospective future tenants. Had the project materialized, Mr. Juaraz would have been required to reconstruct a replica of the original Beacham Theatre facade using original building materials of brick, stucco, decorative tile, and pastel colors.
4th Street Corridor
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.