Our Hospital

Smith Animal Hospital was founded in 1946 by Dr. G.K. Smith. After graduating from Auburn’s veterinary college in 1943, Dr. Smith returned to Spartanburg and began practicing with Dr. Blackstock, the city’s only veterinarian. In 1945 Dr. Smith began construction of his own practice located at 991 Asheville Hwy. Upon completion of the hospital that winter, Dr. Smith left Dr. Blackstock and Smith Animal Hospital opened its doors.

In the early years, Asheville Highway was a two lane road lined by peach orchards. The practice was predominately large animal with dogs and cats making up only a small portion of our patients. But as Spartanburg grew so did Smith Animal Hospital and Dr. Smith needed help. So in 1956 Dr. Tom Fussell was hired fresh out of Georgia vet school. Dr. Fussell worked for one year before leaving to serve his country as a veterinarian in the United States Army. In 1959, after a two-year hiatus, Dr. Fussell returned to Smith Animal Hospital. For the better part of the next 20 years, Smith and Fussell worked together as one of only two practices in the county. The shift from large animal to small animal began in the early ‘70s with the closing of many of the local dairies. Smith Animal Hospital changed with the times and became focused on caring for the emerging companion animal population.

Sadly, Dr. Smith died in the summer of 1979. With the loss of our founder the torch was passed to Dr. Fussell to carry on the Smith Animal Hospital tradition. Due to the continuing decline in livestock in Spartanburg County, Dr. Fussell elected to make Smith Animal Hospital a small animal only practice. As luck would have it, a young Georgia vet student named Sonny King had done a senior externship during the summer of 1978. When news reached him that Dr. Smith had passed, Dr. King accepted the position and joined Dr. Fussell in the fall of 1979 becoming the third veterinarian in Smith Animal Hospital history.