Not long after the turn of the century the Inwood region was discovered by the downtown crowd. Attracted by low rents and promises of clean, country living these former tenement dwellers flocked uptown.
Naturally, as illustrated in the news account below, these “Broadway Hicks” went through a period of adjustment after relocating to upstate Manhattan.
The Evening World
July 24, 1919
Frog Croaks, Not Groans
“Broadway Hicks” Get Little Lesson in Natural History
Strangers to Inwood, the only farming section of Manhattan, who left the subway at Dyckman Street station last night heard peculiar sounds coming from a pool of water in a lot at the corner of Nagle Avenue and Dyckman Street.
A crowd collected and agreed that the sounds were groans, probably from someone in deep distress. A policeman was summoned. He listened for about one second.
“Groans nothin’,” he said. “Those are frogs. Say, you’re the third bunch of Broadway hicks to spring that on me this week.”
And he went away from there while the frogs croaked time to his steps.
