In all the years Gunsmoke was shown, I don't recall that Doc Adams' office/clinic was anywhere but on the second floor
of a Dodge City two-story with a narrow stairway to the entrance.

Now, why on earth didn't that office/clinic ever get moved to a ground floor? Years and years of wounded, sick and maimed
patients being carried or climbing those dang stairs.

I'd like some serious answers as to why Doc never got a ground floor place away from the dirt, dust and general unsanitary conditions of that street.

No wise acre, no smart aleck answers please and I implore the administrators to chastise anyone who does offer such answers. Just good, logical, sane and serious answers please.

Always wondered that myself. Also it appeared in some episodes that it was over Jonas's store.

I think Doc made house calls, saloon or livery, barn, wherever the emergency may have happened.
I can't recall someone injured transported up his stairs but I may be mistaken. Mostly people went for a check up or other reason, even to shoot the breeze.

Better light and ventilation. Doc had to see what he was doing.

The location of Doc's office may be a holdover from the radio show, in which Doc was a much different character. He was much more money-grubbing and much less altruistic.

In one radio show, after Matt kills a miscreant, Doc offers to do the autopsy for free if Matt will allow him to put the body on display and charge the public 10 cents a head to view it! From looking at photos in the old West, I don't think this practice was uncommon!

In the TV show, Doc is a much more admirable character. But the idea was that he eked out a modest living. For example, he was often paid in buttermilk and eggs for delivering a baby. His modest upstairs office is in keeping with this idea.

Many times in the TV show wounded / injured men are carried up the stairs to Doc's office. Watch enough shows, you'll see this was commonly done.

Slight Drift:
Has anyone counted how many times Doc had to dig a bullet out of Matt? I'm guessing it may have been hundreds of times! Doc should have gone into the scrap lead business!

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You're shy a few manners.

A couple of points you need to remember that back then steps weren't considered out of the normal. I work at a world class medical center and our flag ship original building, built in 1928, has steps up to the main doors.

Second the rent was most likely cheaper on the second floor. Main floors were for foot traffic, shops , saloons, eft. Pioneer docs didn't make big money.

Third was already mentioned. The doc went to the home or scence of the accident, thus the common line "fetch the doc".

Hey, at least he wasn't referred to as 'ol saw bones.
Like most of the doc's back then.
Either curarize the wound or saw off the appendage.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

A few years ago I saw Buck Taylor here in town at a SASS event.
I should have asked him.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Doc need the exercise, the stairs were good for his heart.

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Carpriver.

Really? You're serious about wanting to know why the director and producers of a popular fictional television western left Doc in a second floor office, rather than have him moved to street level? Sorry to burst your bubble, but what passes for television drama is fantasy. Matt Dillon was shot up, stabbed, or beaten so often throughout the life of that series, he would have been a cripple at the close of the first season, had reality been a consideration.

I remember one episode with Matt laying in bed recovering from his latest wound and Kitty ripping him a new one because it was the seventh time he had been shot. Ya don't want to make that lady mad!

Answers #4 and #9 so far seem the most logical.

Of course, being on the second floor a better chance existed
that Doc wouldn't be mistaken as the vet for the town's horses.

Anybody Can Kill a Marshal: 2 - lower right leg
Avengers, The: 1 - left upper thigh
Badge, The (1959): 1 - upper left chest near shoulder, from behind
Badge, The (1970): 1 - left chest/side near badge
Big Man, Big Target: 1 - right arm
Brothers, The: 1 - left shoulder/arm
Cover Up, The: 1 - graze on left forearm
Coward, The: 1 - upper right arm
Cows & Cribs: 1 - upper left arm
Deadman's Law: 1 - left shoulder
Disciple: 1 - right forearm
Foundling, The: 1 - forehead graze
Gallows, The: 1 - left shoulder
Gold Train -The Bullet: 1 - mid-back next to spine
Good Samaritans, The: 1 - left side stomach area
Helping Hand: 1 - graze in left side above waist
Hidalgo: 2 - right mid-chest
Imposter, The: 1 - upper right arm
I Thee Wed: 1 - upper left arm
Joe Phy: 1 - upper left arm or shoulder
Kate Heller: 3 - upper left shoulder from the back
Louie Pheeters: 1 - left arm
Lover Boy: 1 - upper left arm
Lynott: 2 - left shoulder; left chest
Mannon: 1 - left shoulder high above badge
Matt Gets It: 2 - forehead crease; right side lower chest
Matt's Love Story: 1 - forehead graze
Muley: 1 - back
Noose, The: 1 - right leg above knee
Parson Comes to Town: 1 - right side from back
Quest for Asa Janin, The: 1 - upper right leg
Raid, The: 1 - upper left arm
Round Up, The: 1 - upper left arm
Seven Hours To Dawn: 4 - lower right torso; head graze; two others
unspecified
Slocum: 1 - left upper arm
Snow Train: 1 - graze on upper right arm
There Never Was a Horse: 1 - right forearm close to elbow
Till Death Do Us: 1 - left forearm near elbow
Unmarked Grave: 1 - left side stomach area
Us Haggens: 1 - upper left arm
Whelan's Men: 1 - upper left arm
Winner Take All: 1 - left shoulder from behind
Wishbone: 1 - upper left arm
Wonder: 1 - upper left arm
Zavala: 1 - left side behind vest

Gunsmoke Movies:
Return to Dodge: 1 - upper left arm
To the Last Man: 1 - upper right arm
The Long Ride: 2 - crease on left neck; upper left leg
One Man's Justice: 1 - upper left arm

Locations:
Left Arm/Shoulder: 26
Torso: 13
Right Arm/Shoulder: 7
Right Leg: 4
Head: 5
Left Leg: 2

Bet the op was plumb perturbed to see yer logical response. Might even chastise ya.

This fits right in with the "or else" thread!

I apologize. That remark may possibly be construed as "smart alec", and I certainly don't need another ding!

I always wondered why Ms. Kitty, who is the brothel pimp, never really flirted with or took the customers up the stairs. I mean after all she was suppose to be a prostitute running the local cat house. Never made much sense to me especially in later years they could at least made her character a little more risque.

As far as the doctor, yeah he made house calls and traveled to the patients. However, I do remember him drinking a lot so while they probably did not make him an alcoholic it definitely gave the impression that he liked to party.

I don't know how many times Matt Dillion got shot, (I see someone else has tallied them up), but in watching the first season of "Combat", Chip Saunders has been wounded at least three times since I started counting.

I figure at this rate he must end up with enough Purple Hearts to sink a good sized boat by the time the fifth season is over.

Still a darn good show though.

To the OP: I suspect paying the Doc wasn't a high priority in those days, and Doc just couldn't afford anything better.

Edited to add: I've been thinking about it. Maybe the upstairs was the more desirable location in those days. Up off the street level, it was probably less dusty, quieter, more prone to catch a breeze than the lower floors that would have been blocked by other buildings, and would catch the early morning and late evening light better.

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John 3:16 .

I expect there were a lot less flies upstairs.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

In Barnesville GA in the late 40's and early 50's, our doctor was upstairs and in the same block as Pharr Pharmacy the the barber shop. Didn't seem unusual, then. even in the 40's, everything seemed quite old. By the way, Barnesville was just a couple of axle greezins down the road from Griffin GA, home of Doc Holliday.

regards

yashua

If the show was really historically accurate I think the doc would have worked out of his house. Even in my life time, most doctors worked out of their house.

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Back to back World War Champs.

My doc had his office in his basement and even made house calls.

I've seen a couple of episodes where his office was above a livery stable and a smithy. Doc also seems like a cheapskate, so I'm opting that's why his office is where it is. Also, the lead ain't usually flying up that high.

Back in those days the Country Doctor would sometimes be paid with Chickens or other non Monetary Items so the upstairs Office may have been the cheapest place in town for His Office.

Didn't Doc live in that upstairs office?

He did. Or at least in season 1.

I've wondered that for years too.
My conclusion:
Doctorin' schools weren't what they are now-a-days (Think Daisy May ("Granny") Moses as the instructor).
That being -- IF you make it all the way up those stairs to the office the Doc has a fair chance of saving you - OTOH, If you die on the stairs your death isn't reflected in his malpractice premiums.

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In dog years I'm dead.

I think Doc lived in his office, old bachelor that he was. Doc always seemed to be there, no matter the time of day or night.

In one of the earlier tv episodes, Matt is living in a building near the jail where someone tries to kill him. But for the most part, he presumably slept somewhere in the Marshall's Office / Jail. Maybe Chester did as well (?)

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You're shy a few manners.

Chester---at least in season 1, lived at the jail. I THINK he stayed elsewhere in season 1, but been awhile since I've seen it, so will HAVE to see them again.

All right! We have a volunteer...
Be sure to report you findings after reviewing the evidence

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In dog years I'm dead.

Now that is a serious fan!

Just like someone else mentioned about doc, Miss Kitty was a lot shadier on the radio.

I probably wouldn't even have a left arm if it had been shot that many times!

Good thing that no one had heard of Elmer Keith in the 1870s - 1880s!

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You're shy a few manners.

That's how I got interested in guns. My uncle was a dr in W.Va. during the depression and he took old guns for payment. Spent summers with him from age 6, nothing else to do but learn about the guns and if I shot them, I was required to make the ammo.All of my civil war vintage guns came from him.

If his office was at ground level, it would have been closer to the dirt, dust, and general unsanitary conditions of the street. At least being on the second floor provided a little distance from dirt and dust that might blow in through chinks in the building and under the doors. Makes perfect sense to me for the office to be up higher.

Note, though, that we're discussing a situation that takes place in a pretend world...a world where make believe cowboys shoot blanks at each other...then act like they're hurt or dying from their wounds. In other words, it wasn't real.


Seriously?

Right sure you're posting on the correct forum?

I agree with watchdog, if you're going to take this serious, then the doc's office would be a little farther away from all the dirt and dust of the street, plus clients might have all the mud off their boots by the time they got to the top. If he got shot that many times, he would have died from lead poisoning, and his muscles would have been nothing but scar tissue.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Speaking of Doc, remember that old "horse pistol" he had? I always wondered what that was. Anyone know?

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

I will providing you can wait for me to get through all three books of the North and South mini series. I'm halfway through book one now.

I have wondered about that. When Doc goes to arm himself, he just has some old junky looking Civil War era revolver. IIRC, the same situation exists for Chester.

But Matt kills so many drifters / criminals who are armed with very nice Colt Peacemakers. Some times this happens out on the trail and Matt leaves the holstered gun hanging on the outlaw's makeshift grave marker. Not to even mention all the Winchesters ...

HUH?

You would think Matt could give Doc and Chester two or three Colts each and still have enough guns to start his own gun shop.

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You're shy a few manners.

My doctor has been on the second floor for many years. I'll ask him why he never moved to the ground floor.

Seriously, the room over a building was cheap space partially because it WASN'T on the ground floor. I've seen all kinds of shops/offices in old west pictures, but it seems mostly related to medical in some way. Dentists, Opticians and the like.

I don't think the doctor business in the old west was all that lucrative or was all that steady.

There were already buildings to hold bigger business and rather than build a new building they'd just take the second story.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Chester never carried a handgun on a regular basis. Every time he backed Dillon's play, he grabbed a rifle or a shotgun. There was one episode where Chester was worried about Matt, so he took the marshall's backup revolver out of his desk. But Dillon took it away from him.

Don't know what kind of gun Doc Adams used. Do know he fought for the Union in the Civil War, though.

When I was young the Drs office was on the 2nd floor. Also most of th Attorneys offices.

Prime space was probably a premium. So the grocery stores, shoe stores, clothing stores rented out the "attics" to help pay for the building.

Matt was shot a lot, back in the day that was acceptable and Miss Kitty's were not acceptable. She looked the part but unlike Matt and Doc's profession hers was not discussed.

Now Le is under the gun and girls that dress the part get on stage, sing and get smiley.

I also read the one of the reasons for dying in the old days after being shot was infection. The bullet would take clothing particles or pieces into the wound. The clothes were dirty and bacteria hot beds. That is what caused so many amputations in the civil war. So Matt defied this in addition to lead poisoning and bleeding to death. Guess he was was just a very clean fella.

https://youtu.be/OfCCi9oCrAU

Since when has this become normal when posting?
Are you one of today's so called offended by everything crowd?

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

You guys do know that while outside shoots are outdoors, Inside shots are usually shot on a sound stage?
Take Longmire- Walt's house is shown as the Foreman's house up at the Valles Caldera, about 40 Miles from Santa Fe.
The interior shots, including his house, are shot at the Greer Garson Studios, located in Santa Fe.
So no matter which building he is seen walking into, when he's seen inside its at the Greer Garson.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Matt's wound tally-TOTAL = 55

The show ran for 20 years.
So, that's only an average of 2.75 wounds per year.
Considerin' that so many were only flesh wounds, ma'am, that ain't nuthin for a man as tough as Matt.

Trivia-
John Wayne was asked by Gunsmoke producers who might be right for the Dillon role. Wayne told them he had a young man under contract that was perfect for the job, and hooked Arness up.
Arness was 6'-6" or 6'-7" tall, depending on who you read.
Peter Graves (Mission Impossible TV series) was his younger brother.
Arness was shot up badly in one leg at Anzio (3rd ID), and spent months in the hospital, having multiple surgeries. The leg bothered him the rest of his life. Ever notice him limping in some episodes?

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Doc had an 1851 Colt Navy that he intended to use on some bad guy in one episode, and Chester said to Matt" You know what a Colt Navy can do to a man". Maybe Chester was thinking of a Dragoon, or knowing Doc, he filled the chambers to the brim before ramming in the balls...😊

Which explains why the doc's office was on the second floor--his primary practice was obviously doing medical checks on Ms. Kitty's workstaff. This was Doc's contribution to helping Matt Dillon clean up Dodge City.

I remember that episode. It was a 1st season episode. The doc wanted to kill someone very bad. It was the guy who stole his fiance.

Frontier medicine wasn't far removed from what witch doctors practiced. No antiseptics (except maybe whiskey), no painkillers (except maybe whiskey), no anesthetics, no antibiotics, no hygiene at all. It's a wonder Matt survived his first shootout without dying of infection. Many "Doctors" had very little formal medical training, they just learned on the job by trial and error. They may have owned a few medical books for reference. Also, no medical malpractice suits or medical insurance coverage.

In my childhood in a rural area of Southern Ohio, there was one local doctor. He had gone to a 2-year medical school in Cincinnati (sort of like a trade school) back in the early decades of the century - no other higher education. He practiced well into his 80's, and from a wheelchair. His office was a wing of his house and he had a waiting room which would hold maybe 4 or 5 people. No receptionist or other assistance personnel - just him. No appointments, you just walked in when the office was open, and paid $3 for a visit, in cash (this was in the 1940s and 1950s). He was also the local pharmacy. He didn't write a prescription. He went into a back room where he kept his medicines, and came out with a couple of bottles or envelopes of whatever stuff he thought you needed to take. You paid for that in cash also. And in an emergency, he would make house calls. We lived maybe a quarter-mile away, and I remember him coming to our house several times when I or my brother was really sick. He had a big black leather bag, mainly full of medicine. I don't know what he charged for a house call. If you didn't like that quality of medical treatment, you had to go about 30 miles to town where there were other doctors.

I just finished watching season 3. Doc was in his buggy headed to a ranch. Bad guy played by Jack Lord stopped Doc with drawn gun and ordered him to go back to town. Doc refused so BG shot Doc's horse. Doc then pulled a double-barreled shotgun, gave BG both loads and left him laying in the dirt. Then took BG's horse and continued down the road.

Doc's conscience bothered him later.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821