{"id":55964,"date":"2025-05-31T17:26:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T21:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=55964"},"modified":"2025-05-31T17:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T21:27:17","slug":"inklings-book-shoppe-moving-to-dixieland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/05\/31\/inklings-book-shoppe-moving-to-dixieland\/","title":{"rendered":"Inklings Book Shoppe Moving to Dixieland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since purchasing Inklings Book Shoppe<\/a> (formerly Book Bazaar) in 2020, Finley and Carmen Walker have been searching for the bookstore\u2019s forever home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, they moved the business from South Combee Road to 243 N. Florida Ave., on the edge of downtown Lakeland, in January 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they\u2019re in the process of another move, to 737 S. Missouri Ave., across the street from Hillcrest Coffee<\/a>, in Dixieland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The downtown shop has been a success. \u201cThe location\u2019s been incredible,\u201d Finley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur customer visitation more than doubled. Our gross revenue from Combee doubled at the Florida location, and it\u2019s half the size. For square footage, we quadrupled the effectiveness of the space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Walkers expanded the bookstore\u2019s business. Along with used books, the inventory now includes new, antique, and high-end books such as collectibles and first editions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve also added games, puzzles and local artworks and they\u2019re planning for \u201cBooks and Bricks\u201d to bring Legos into the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve loved being downtown. We\u2019re going to miss it,\u201d Finley said, \u201cbut we love Dixieland, too\u2026 If I could have a store in both places, I would.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old home, new digs: Inklings\u2019 new building in Dixieland was originally a single-family home built more than 100 years ago. It also has been a real estate office and, most recently, Cheatwood Chiropractic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building\u2019s current owner, Chris Cheatwood, is letting the Walkers lease to purchase, making owning their property finally feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is what we originally dreamed of,\u201d Finley said, \u201ca historic-type home, to convert into this bookstore \u2014 a legacy bookstore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inklings\u2019 plan<\/a> to convert the vacant chiropractic office was approved by the Lakeland Planning & Zoning Board May 20. It needs final approval by the City Commission. The first reading is scheduled on Monday, June 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Walkers plan to open the Dixieland location on July 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think we can make something very beautiful here,\u201d Finley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Dixieland changes: Inklings is not the only change coming to that block of South Missouri Avenue. Recently, Guy A. Remodeling finished work on two single-family homes directly north of the soon-to-be Inklings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guy Afriat said that because the homes were in such bad shape, he would have demolished and rebuilt from the ground up, but as part of Dixieland\u2019s historic district, the existing exteriors could not be modified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, his company built support systems to buttress the walls as they rebuilt from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe surgically removed every wood beam and replaced it with another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The completed houses are stunning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since purchasing Inklings Book Shoppe (formerly Book Bazaar) in 2020, Finley and Carmen Walker have been searching for the bookstore\u2019s forever home. First, they moved the business from South Combee Road to 243 N.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"4","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDVcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtODktMTkud2VicD9maXQ9NTY2JTJDMzY3JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiSW5rbGluZ3MgQm9vayBTaG9wcGUgTW92aW5nIHRvIERpeGllbGFuZCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.6-kSFa2BgPQRC8GPoZV8K6KgvPQCjUXCX4hYa6eCV1AMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":55965,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-89-19.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[11573],"class_list":["post-55964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-inklings-book-shoppe-moving-to-dixieland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55966,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55964\/revisions\/55966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}