Alexander Sprunt and Sons was the largest single cotton handling firm in the United States at the turn of the century. The direct agencies extended from Barcelona and Genoa on the Mediterranean to Helsingfors in the Gulf of Finland and Moscow in central Russia. Offices were in Wilmington and Liverpool, England, and Bremen, Germany.
The warehouses has a complete system of automatic sprinklers in case of fire, and the buildings covered two city blocks with a storage capacity of 25,000 bales of cotton. The firm started in 1866 shipping naval stores on sailing vessels. Later in 1881, the Sprunt firm pioneered the steam foreign trade in Wilmington, chartering the first streamer, the Barnesmore.
Source: A Pictorial History of Wilmington by Anne Russell
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