Cytron Furniture — Cool Redux?

By Maureen Neeley, House Historian

Retro Row (Fourth Street between Junipero and Cherry) has gotten lots of press lately. And deservedly so – owners have taken several blocks of run down commercial buildings and turned them into a destination spot for funky retail and home furnishings shops, restaurants, wine bars, coffee houses and a revived Art Deco theater. But Fourth is a long street. Head west a mile or so and you’ll hit the original Fourth Street area for home furnishings and art.

In the 1920s as the city was becoming an oil-boom town, furniture stores clustered in the downtown area to outfit the seemingly endless supply of new homes being erected. Barker Brothers, Bogle’s, Walker’s, Cytron and Eastern furniture companies all were represented here in Long Beach, eager to ride the construction boom. Barker Brothers’ flagship Long Beach store, located on Broadway and Locust (now called The Promenade) was razed in 1994. It now serves as a parking lot across from the Blue Café and the Cellar nightclubs. Walker’s Department Store on Pine has been reinvented as premier lofts.

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