Opening a second store “wasn’t on my mind at the time,“ Evans said Monday while he waited on customers in the newly opened Christian Armory Store. “I had some discussions with the mall office about how B.Dalton and Walden books had left. I prayed about it and partners showed up from out of nowhere.”
The yet-to-be-named mainstream bookstore will contain new, used, rare and antique books, Evans said. He plans to have it opened by February.
The Christian Armory fills a void that Logos Christian Bookstore left when it closed in 2007, Evans said. He received confirmation of that Monday, when Clara Ritchie came into the store seeking a book by an author she had heard about.
“I’m so glad you’re here,“ she told Evans as he checked his computer for titles by the author.
“I was very upset when (Logos) closed,” she said. “Now I don’t have to order online and I don’t have to leave town. I can come in here and pick out what I want.”
In addition to books and music, the store has a full line of greeting cards, gifts and home decor.
“We have probably the largest selection of boxed greeting cards in the Miami Valley,” Evans said.
The store is new, but the moniker is not. In the 1970s, Christian Armory Bookstore in Columbus was one of the largest in the country, Evans said. In the late ’90s, it was bought out by the Lifeway Christian Stores, which did not buy the name.
Evans’ company reclaimed the name and opened its first store in Heath. Springfield is the company’s second store. Additional stores are planned for Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Phoenix.
The store is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The store is currently opened 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, but that could change, Evans said. For more information, call (937) 328-5675.
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