Rev Timothy J Stevens

1808 Main Street Glastonbury, CT still stands today. --The Timothy Stevens House was built for the Reverend Timothy Stevens as one of the inducements to encourage him to settle here so that “Glassenbury,” as it was to be called, could become an independent town. Ministers were in short supply. The townsmen offered to the Reverend Stevens an annual wage of 60 pounds, 150 acres of the Town’s still undivided land, and six acres with a “suitable House.” This is that house, a gambrel-roofed structure. It probably was built in 1693 and has an unusually early brick foundation. It was described at the time as a “girt dwelling” with a “good Stack of Chimnies in it.” A “girt” building is a frame structure built using a technique today called post and beam construction.

The Reverend Stevens was given the choice of a 20-foot long house or, if he furnished the nails, glass, and ironwork himself, a 40-foot long house. He chose the larger structure. The house still stands in its original location on Main Street. What is now Morgan Drive follows a 17th century cart road that led eastward to woodlots. The original Timothy Stevens House is the south-facing, white structure. As Dr. Whittles observed, in 17th century Glastonbury, all houses faced south so that the sunlight would help heat them.

Timothy Stevens has been quite a prominent name in the making of the history of Connecticut, having been connected with many prominent men in writing the early laws of Connecticut.

He was the first Stevens to graduate from Harvard College in 1683, in Connecticut Laws.