Originally the site of Clarks Wharf (after merchant Thomas Clark built a pier here in the mid-seventeenth century), it became the property of Thomas Hancock in 1761 and was renamed Hancock Wharf. In 1764, his nephew John Hancock inherited the wharf, together with warehouse and store. By 1836–1840 the Quincy granite Lewis Wharf structures were added, and after 1850 it was a center for the clipper-ship trade with China, Australia, Hawaii, and Europe. Part of the wharf was destroyed for the building of Atlantic Avenue between 1869 and 1872. It has been renovated for residential use, and the original gable roof has been altered with two stories of poorly designed apartments. Edgar Allan Poe's “Fall of the House of Usher” was based on events at the North End Coffee House, located opposite the head of the wharf until its demolition in 1973.