William Spencer Hutchinson, or W. Spencer Hutchinson, was born into a family of furniture makers who lived on the west side of Old Morton Street.
Huchinson attended Dorchester High School and went on to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1892. In 1893, he was curator of the MIT exhibit at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He went on to become the fourth head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. He was a member of the engineering division of the National Research Council, also a member and director of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and member of the council of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America.
The 1930 U.S. Census lists William, his wife, Elizabeth and his daughter, Virginia Hope Hutchinson, at 45 Old Morton Street.