Smiths Station

Smiths Station is located in southeast Lee County, in the east-central part of the state. Novelist Caroline Lawson Ivey was a lifelong resident of Smiths Station.

Smiths Station was first settled in 1866 with the establishment of a post office and a railroad station on a line of the Central of Georgia Railroad. The railroad established the station as a halfway point between Columbus, Georgia, and Opelika, Lee County, and named it Smith's Station, after local resident Broadus Smith, who donated the land. The apostrophe later was dropped from the name.

When U.S. Highway 280 was expanded to four lanes between Opelika and Phenix City, Russell County, in the early 1980s, Smiths Station grew rapidly as a bedroom community of both cities. Smiths Station was incorporated in 2001.

According to 2016 Census estimates, Smiths Station recorded a population of 5,235. Of that number, 86.7 percent identified themselves as white, 11.3 percent as black, 2.0 percent as Hispanic or Latino, 1.8 percent as Native American, and 0.3 percent as two or more races. The town's median household income was $50,597, and the per capita income was $25,519.

Employment

According to 2016 Census estimates, the workforce in Smiths Station was divided among the following industrial categories:

· Educational services, and health care and social assistance (20.4 percent)
· Retail trade (17.5 percent)
· Manufacturing (12.6 percent)
· Finance, insurance, and real estate, rental, and leasing (10.6 percent)
· Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste   management services (6.1 percent)
· Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (5.9   percent)
· Transportation and warehousing and utilities (5.9 percent)
· Public administration (5.5 percent)
· Other services, except public administration (4.3 percent)
· Information (4.3 percent)
· Wholesale trade (3.1 percent)
· Construction (2.9 percent)
· Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (0.8 percent)

Schools in Smiths Station are part of the Lee County School District; the town has approximately 5,519 students and 353 teachers in three elementary schools, one junior high school, and one high school. Auburn University is less than 25 miles from the city.

County Road 430 is located just south of Smiths Station and runs northwest-southeast, and U.S. Highway 280/431 is located north of the city and also runs northwest-southeast.

The Lowther House Complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.