The James & Catherine Hutchinson House — 51 W. 95th St.

by Tom Miller

In 1892, real estate developer George J. Harlow completed a group of five three-story-and-basement townhouses on West 95th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.  Designed by architect Martin V. B. Ferdon in the Renaissance Revival style, the 18-foot-wide homes were faced in brownstone and featured two-story bays above the parlor floor.

James and Catherine Hutchinson purchased 51 West 95th Street.  Born in 1848, James had served as an officer aboard the steam frigate Adirondack during the Civil War.  It was one of the last wooden warships built before the Union turned to ironclad vessels.  Her construction proved to be a fatal flaw, and in September 1862, just seven months after being launched, it was sunk.  Happily, James Hutchinson and the rest of the crew survived.

Her construction proved to be a fatal flaw, and in September 1862, just seven months after being launched, it was sunk.

The couple had a son, George E., who would graduate from Columbia University in 1909 with an engineering degree.  George put his career on hold when the United States entered World War I.  He enlisted in the Army on November 20, 1917, and was made a lieutenant just two days later.  Following the war, George returned to his family home and resumed his career.  By 1920 he was a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

James Hutchison died on May 29, 1922, at the age of 74.  His funeral was held in the parlor two days later.  Just two months later, on July 29, the Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide reported that Catherine had sold her home of 30 years to Marion B. Reynolds.

It appears the residence was now being operated as a high-end boarding house.  By 1924 Madame M. Blazejewicz-Ullman “concert pianist and teacher” lived and taught here.  She toured Europe, so recently devasted by war, in the summer of 1926.  Upon her return, she reported that “conditions in general are improving very noticeably, especially in Germany.”  The Musical Observer reported, “Mme. Ullman intends to tour Europe again next summer…She will play her ultra modern groups on her tours and will spend the winter mainly in working up her modern repertoire and in writing some new and eccentric numbers.”

Madame Blazejewicz-Ullman was still living and teaching here in 1935.  Other residents that year were Philip Klein and his family.  Klein, who had been in the apparel manufacturing business since 1910, was a principal in the Never Wet Processing Corporation.

 The address—if not the house itself–gained cinematic fame in 1992 as the home of Rob and Georgette McCallister’s New York City townhouse in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.

The address—if not the house itself–gained cinematic fame in 1992 as the home of Rob and Georgette McCallister’s New York City townhouse in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.  In the film, young Kevin McCallister rigs the house with booby traps to snare his antagonists, Harry and Marv.  In fact, the exterior of the house was filmed on “Brownstone Street” on the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles and that façade bears little resemblance to the real 51 West 95th Street.

A renovation completed in 1996 resulted in an apartment on the top floor.  Outwardly, the house has changed very little since the Hutchinson family moved in in 1892.

Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com