Evoking the city of Petersburg’s heyday as the self-proclaimed world’s leading manufacturer of trunks and valises, the Virginia Trunk & Bag Company, established in 1898, had a large facility operating in the city by 1903. The complex today retains its original buildings and structures, where the various trunk-manufacturing operations were performed, from receiving raw lumber to shipping finished products. From 1916 until 1931 the site was also the headquarters for the American Hardware Company, the parent company for at least six different trunk makers in the city. At the time of its listing in the registers, the Virginia Trunk & Bag Co. represented the most intact and best preserved of the remaining trunk manufacturing facilities in Petersburg.