Hutchison House at 930 East Avenue

Charles Force Hutchison donated his house his house at 930 East Avenue to the Eastman School of Music.  It was used as a student union, recital hall, and activity center from 1952 until 1962, when it became the residence of the school director.  In 1976, the University gave the building to the George Eastman Museum.  The house still stands next to the Eastman House on East Avenuey.

References
1974 Charles Force Hutchison (1875-1974), grave in Mt Hope Cemetery

1977 History of the University of Rochester, 1850-1962, by Arthur J. May.  Expanded edition with notes
The Eastman School--The Postwar Years
The Music School, located with the exception of its women's dormitories in the heart of the city, had long felt the need of a real campus--of "blue sky and green grass"--of a place where the increasing number of students could relax and carry on their varied social and extracurricular activities. This dream was realized in part in 1951 when trustee and board of managers member Charles F. Hutchison turned his spacious East Avenue residence over to the School. About a mile from Gibbs Street and next door to Eastman House, the luxurious house and its surrounding gardens had atone time been considered as a possible official residence for the president of the University, but the immediate availability of Babcock House made the latter more practical. The City Council passed the necessary enabling ordinance , and in the fall Hutchison House began service as a student union and, temporarily, as a badly-needed men's dormitory. Plans to build a permanent dormitory for men on the property were cut short, however, when the Women's College was reunited with the College for Men on the River Campus and the Eastman School fell heir to buildings in the Prince Street area. Thereafter Hutchison House was used for recitals and musicales, and for activities of the. Preparatory Department. In 1959 it housed for a time the congregation of Rochester's Unitarian Church, pending the completion of a new sanctuary; its former home, the lovely Gothic-revival church of Richard Upjohn, had been razed to make way for progress (and Midtown Plaza). Upon the return of Hutchison House to the Eastman School two years later, it reverted to its former status; upon the retirement of Howard Hanson, it became the official residence of the new director.

2014 Charles Force Hutchison (1875-1974) and other family members, by Lauren Weber

© 2021 Morris A. Pierce