T Wharf, originally called “Minot’s T,” was originally attached to Boston’s Long Wharf in the 1720s. It saw its largest period of growth in the 1820s as maritime commerce was growing in Boston (German 3). In 1869, the Atlantic Avenue project, which included filling in Boston’s waterfront, shortened T Wharf, and in 1872, Martin Brimmer and the proprietors of T Wharf successfully petitioned the Board of Harbor Commissions in Boston for permission to extend the north side of T Wharf (Folder 1).

In the 1880s, the wharf became a primary site for Boston’s fish merchants. From 1882 to 1883, a long row of wooden stores were built along the wharf for fish dealers, and in 1884 thirty fish dealers, which became the T Wharf Fish Market Association, signed a ten-year lease on the new stores and moved into them. The association renewed their lease for another ten years in 1894, but by the time the lease was up for renewal again in 1904 the wharf was becoming overcrowded and the fish merchants were beginning to spill out onto Atlantic Avenue. T Wharf was also gaining a reputation for being unsanitary. The Fish Market Association was unable to determine another operating location, however, so they ultimately decided to renew their lease for another ten years (German 3-4).

After 1904, though, the fish merchants began organizing and making plans to relocate. In 1908, the New England Fish Exchange was formed to regulate the fresh fish business. In 1910, the Boston Fish Market Corporation was formed, which worked with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to begin constructing a new pier in South Boston. Finally, on March 28, 1914, the fish merchants moved from T Wharf to the pier in South Boston, which would become the world’s largest fish marketing site (German 4).

After most of the fish dealers left T Wharf in 1914, the wharf was markedly changed. In 1914, the association which had come to be known as the T Wharf Supply and Rental Company was dissolved and in its place, the T Wharf Land Trust was formed. Trustees included Bernard C. Clark, Philip Dexter, George B. Inches, Henderson Inches, Francis C. Welch, and the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1927, F. Morton Smith was appointed as a trustee to replace Francis C. Welch (Folder 1). During the 1920s and 1930s, the wharf became a site for Boston’s community of artists and writers. The wharf deteriorated in the following decades and was finally demolished in the early 1960s (German 4).